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Our integrated web development process
Brandon, our Director of Digital Strategy, has a saying when it comes to our internal white board stage of site construction: “Everyone gets a turn with the marker.”
When it comes to identifying a client’s needs in a web-based project and how those needs are best fulfilled, internal collaboration isn’t just important, it’s essential. While Strategy, Design, and Digital Media can often (unfortunately) exist in vacuums, going it alone has become somewhat outdated.
Recently, our digital media team has been taking a more active role in site planning, participating in everything from estimate drafting to information architecture to wire-framing and beyond. More traditional workflow dictates that a developer is meant to focus almost exclusively on their namesake: development. Sure, they can provide some limited consultation, but otherwise coders often remain quiet until design templates and wire-frames suddenly appear on their desk.
Working in that manner comes with disadvantages. The developer may find an unexpected portion of the approved materials that proves difficult to implement within the budget, just as a web strategist/producer or designer may find themselves working with incomplete information. This kind of in-house disconnection might end up being reflected in the work… which could leave clients dissatisfied.
Our more integrated approach remedies this. During the earlier phases of a project, all in-house members of the team become, in a sense, solutions architects. We take our respective skill sets from design, development, or brand strategy and apply them equally to determining the content structure of a new website. The result is a situation where all members of the team are on the same page. Collaborating on its construction not only grants team members a better understanding of the site structure, but makes them truly invested in maintaining its integrity throughout the process.
A web project is more than just its individual parts. The same can be said for the team that’s building it. Designers shouldn’t be limited to Photoshop, and we developers have more to offer than just code.
Categories: Digital Media
Think before you leap!
Here at Sametz Blackstone, we’re big fans of The Community Roundtable: a network for community managers — and anyone else working in the social business field (a growing area, to say the least.)
“The CR” (the common shorthand for their name) provides information, collaborative events, and a sort of ongoing “digital support group” for people who are taking part in online conversations on behalf of an organization.They face a unique set of challenges — and the CR has responded with a unique set of solutions and resources.
Rachel Happe founded the The CR with Jim Storer, and they both bring a wealth of marketing and social media expertise to the table. This is evident in a recent piece Rachel wrote for Information Week: “The Third Leg of the Social Business Stool: Technology”. Here’s an excerpt:
“Social technology is everywhere, and often it’s the place where companies start because it’s the most obvious new element, particularly for interacting with external audiences. Businesses see most of their customers using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking channels, so building a presence there seems to make obvious sense. However, adopting the technology starts a company down the slippery slope of social business when that may not be its intent, so it’s unprepared for the risks.
Marketing departments, for instance, will start a Twitter or Facebook page to reach more customers directly, but in the process they’re setting the expectation that they’re speaking and listening. Most organizations don’t have the processes and governance in place to effectively listen and respond to individual consumers in meaningful ways. As a result, crises can emerge.”
As more and more social media firms rise up to promise big things to organizations, and social media conferences haul in millions every year preaching the value of social tools and platforms and “being a part of the conversation”, and more and more companies fear that they’ll be left behind if they don’t “get a Twitter and a Facebook.”
That’s why I’m so pleased when someone who works actively in social business advocates for building a presence only after you’ve taken the time to learn:
- What’s already being said about you out there, so you know where you stand from the beginning
- How your target market is actually using social tools and networks — so you can follow suit with your tone and your topics
- The resources you actually have on hand to tackle social media involvement
- Security and data risks unique to your industry
- The use cases within your organization that correlate with key social tools
Some of the biggest brands out there have found themselves in hot water after diving into social because they didn’t want to be left behind.
This doesn’t mean, of course, that you should minimize the importance of social as a part of your integrated marketing plan, of course. But remember: the cost of looking foolish is considerably greater than the cost of staying silent until you’ve got the right thing to say.
Categories: Digital Media, Strategy and Management
Liveblogging the Radian6 “Social 2011″ conference
If you’ve been active in the social business space for longer than a minute, you’ve heard of Radian6. They’ve set a high bar for social media monitoring, listening, measurement, and engagement — and their client list includes some of the biggest, most well-known brands in the word.
Now they’re bringing their team to Boston to host the “Social 2011″ User Conference: an information-packed, two-day event with an expert lineup of guest speakers and panelists from a wide range of industries.
We’re (Tamsen and Meg) excited to take part in this unique event as “livebloggers” and “livetweeters” during the conference sessions. If you’re planning to attend the event, make sure you come say hello — and if you’re not able to join us, be sure to keep an eye on the conference site for blog updates, and on our respective Twitter streams (linked above) for full event coverage. You can also search on the conference hashtag — #social2011 — to get the latest from all the conference participants, including Radian6 staff.
The program is designed to give attendees a glimpse into the future of social media and social technologies — as well as valuable insight into the trends that are changing the way we do business right now. You can check out the keynote speaker list here.
We hope you join us there — or follow along online!
Categories: Digital Media, Outside the Square, Strategy and Management
The Community Roundtable releases the “2011 State of Community Management” report
As more and more organizations begin to embrace social business technologies, the role of community manager is rising in importance every day.
This “front lines” role interacts directly with customers and constituents, and is tasked with providing an open ear and a responsive voice over public channels — and with crisis communications, should a problem arise.
It takes a unique type of person to engage on behalf of an organization for better or for worse, which is why The Community Roundtable was founded: to offer support, resources, and (fittingly) a community for those who foster community elsewhere.
This week, “The CR” released a report based on data and feedback culled from their members over the past year: the 2011 State of Community Management:
“Last year social business came of age as organizations got serious about executing in a new, more interactive and collaborative way. These organizations understand that using social technologies successfully requires both business process adaptation and people that understand how to manage these new social environments – at both a tactical and a strategic level. The conversation is no longer primarily about technology but about doing business effectively in a new communications environment. Community management is a critical element of managing networked environments effectively.”
From best practices to recommended tools to key strategies, the report delivers the kind of down-to-earth, straightforward advice and ideas that anyone working in community management or social business need to do their jobs more effectively.
Congratulations to Rachel Happe and Jim Storer, founders of The Community Roundtable, on the release of this tremendously useful resource.
Here’s to another year of building community and trust — and supporting the folks who support others across social networks every day!
You can find the full report here.
Categories: Digital Media, Outside the Square, Strategy and Management
A different kind of “graceful”
Additional material contributed by Sametz developer Luke Ehler
A few weeks ago, our friends over at KMA wrote a post about a very important concept in the modern browsing era: Graceful degradation.
Website construction has always required a multi-pronged perspective: not only must you consider the inner workings of the site you’re putting together, but also the broader context in which an audience of users are accessing your content in constantly evolving ways — namely, through a variety of browsers.
There was not always a Firefox, nor a Safari, nor the newly available release candidate of IE9. Likewise, while some users like to stay up to date and fashionable with their technology, others are understandably content with older ways of browsing the web.
Each browser, monitor, or platform interprets code with its own set of nuances. As new tags, properties, and techniques become available (like HTML5/CSS3), it takes a while for users to catch up. Think of it as watching an HD channel without an HD television.
So what are developers to do?
Generally, this issue is addressed by one of two similar, yet opposing philosophies: an approach called “progressive enhancement”, or the aforementioned “graceful degradation”. The first describes the act of designing for the most dated users, while simultaneously scaling up for those with modern browsing capabilities — and the second, the same in reverse. Both approaches yield comparable results, and their only real differentiation is their starting point.
At Sametz, our approach splits the difference.
On a project-by-project basis, we establish a baseline consisting of a broad user base with access to some of the latest capabilities of the web — but perhaps out of reach of the very latest in updates. We then pay careful attention to browser releases, the intended audience(s) for the site, and existing analytics for the site we’re working on to further define the baseline. From there, we focus on creating code that allows users with proper equipment to gain an enhanced experience — while still allowing those with older browsers maintain the integrity of their user experience.
The result is a project which takes advantage of the various extras of modern browsers, while still maintaining conceptual integrity in “legacy” browsers. Everyone ends up with the best experience possible.
We’ve put together a basic example to illustrate this, using our basic CSS reset and some HTML5 form elements. Then we specifically skipped our usual cross-browser testing to observe the results. Observe the following form as a baseline:
For this hypothetical project, we’ve determined that the user base is likely to be using relatively modern browsing platforms with roughly the capabilities of Firefox 3.6. Though the form elements are plain text boxes, some slick new CSS capabilities like box shadows and rounded corners apply.
This form scales back to IE6 (~2001), observe the legacy version:
While the newer CSS features (rounded corners, drop shadow, etc) are no longer present, the functionality of the form remains intact as well as the clarity of the concept.
And finally, our enhanced version (all features viewable in Safari 5, etc):
There are several enhancements unique to this example, including the placeholder on the email field, the invalid states on the email and number forms, the extra incremental buttons on the number field, and the slider with the updating value on the right. As you can see, the base functionality of the form remains the same.
The fields obtain information identical to the baseline, but with more specific methods. Additionally, this model represents forward-capability (meaning that you get the baseline now but as these features become commonplace, they’re already working once you update your browser).
We feel this philosophy will help us tackle the modern browsing era, allowing us to work with the most advanced techniques available — without leaving any users behind.
Categories: Digital Media
The Stages of Social Media Acceptance
With our apologies to Elisabeth Kübler-Ross… and thanks to Meg Fowler (and her sense of humor) for the illustrative quotes.
Categories: Digital Media, Outside the Square
“Bridging the gap” at Suffolk University
Sametz Blackstone Associates is honored to be taking part in the “Bridging the Gap” conference presented by the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University tomorrow, February 18th, 2011. Our Director of Strategic Initiatives, Tamsen McMahon, will be on hand to moderate two panels on social media use for business, and Meg Fowler (Associate, Business Development and Public Relations) will be attending as well.
From the conference website:
“Social Media and Inbound Marketing are making their way through business and culture. This migration of ideologies creates opportunities and complexities within all organizations. Bridging the Gap between academia and real world practices, strengthens the connection between the frameworks preached in schools and the practical applications being used in organizations.”
We’re looking forward to some great sessions and conversations!
Unfortunately, the event is sold out, but If you’d like to participate in sessions virtually, check out the #btg11 hashtag on Twitter, and follow Tamsen (@tamadear) and Meg (@megfowler) to follow their live tweets of the conference.
Categories: Digital Media, Strategy and Management
Delete or return? Brand communications in 2011
Lately there’s been a lot of talk about how social media is transforming marketing practices. Actually, we think there is a much more significant opportunity to talk about how communications—abetted by these emerging technologies—have the potential to transform how organizations work, not just how they operate their marketing communications.
We have the opportunity to frame a much more interesting question than “who should own our Facebook page?”
The marketer of the future requires a new ecosystem of consultants, agencies, vendors, and partners (not to mention army of empowered employees) for support. I think the old divisions of marketing communications, advertising, pr, and even the co-called “digital agencies” are inadequate alone, and not wholly compatible together. I think there is a big reshuffling of agency capabilities in the offing.
I’ve come across a bunch of reports from management consulting companies assessing the promises and problems of the new media environment. Though they are generally short on answers, they pose a lot of good questions and reveal clear trends. Here are my summaries of a few. Each of the reports is freely available online (or they were), so I’ve linked them here for your convenience.
Scaling the New Horizon: The Real Alignment Imperative for CMOs and CIOs
Accenture
The Accenture one is basically a teaser for a bigger report, but it illuminates the potential of an alliance between the marketing and IT organizations (something like what Mitch Joel calls a “Chief Marketing Technologist” in blog posts like this one on the “agency of the future”).
The CMO’s Imperative: Tackling New Digital Realities
Boston Consulting Group
The BCG report is a good, thorough overview of the status quo, but I find it surprisingly conservative, and the authors shrug their shoulders when it comes to certain important questions. It also seems to focus on marketing alone, and advertising especially—overlooking the brand management and communication needs of customers, shareholders, employees, the media, business partners and industry communities, etc.
How businesses are using Web 2.0: A McKinsey Global Survey (2007)
The rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday (2010)
McKinsey
This pair of articles, one from 2007 and a recent follow-up, speaks more of the actual changes in organizational attitudes and behaviors that can translate to stronger market share.
Got any other good reports or sources for insight? Please share them!
Categories: Digital Media, Strategy and Management
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