I am going to shift my e-mail newsletter archives into my blog this week and will post new issues as they come out here. I am going to date them as of when they were sent out so I’m not sure if they will appear in the feed, for those of you reading the site via a newsreader.
Thoughts On Strategy: Shopping vs. Buying
I just finished reading Clotaire Rapaille’s The Culture Code, in which he marks a key distinction about how Americans perceive shopping compared to buying. His book is about identifying and employing specific codes that represent commonly shared perceptions within a culture.
Rapaille says that in the United States the code for shopping is ‘reconnecting’ while buying is about completing a task. The distinction is that shopping is all about the experience while buying is focused on completing a given task efficiently. Consider how you think about going holiday shopping vs. going to buy a gallon of milk.
Bringing this idea to the Web, is your web site designed to heighten the experience for shoppers while maximizing efficiency for those ready to buy? Should your site be targeted at those out to buy while your in-person opportunities are about the experience? I think either or both could be pursued online. The key question is: What path is more closely aligned with your overall goals and strategy as an organization?
I’ll touch on this theme below in the case about Heifer International’s web site.
Case Study: Heifer International
A special treat for you this month: a screencast case study! Follow this link to YouTube to listen to my review of giving money to Heifer International online.
A few questions to consider, once you have watched the screencast:
High Geekery: Anatomy of a Screencast
A screencast is typically a video recording of a computer screen showing an interaction with an application or web site on a computer with an audio voice over. It has become very easy to create these over the last few years as tools for making them have evolved and platforms for sharing (most notably YouTube) have become widely available.
How to make one like I did for this month’s newsletter? Read on…
First, how I did this screencast on a Mac. I will then follow-up with what I recommend on Windows.
The first thing I do for a screencast is to make some notes on what I want to discuss and key points to make. I don’t script it closely but I do run through the application or site a couple times before I start the recording.
When I’m ready to record, I use a program called SnapZ Pro X to record the video and audio on my Mac. SnapZ allows me to position a frame on the screen and it then captures anything that happens in that frame while recording. It also captures audio for the voice over via a Snowball mic I have attached to my laptop.
Once done with the recording, SnapZ saves it as a .mov file. I review the recording in QuickTime and do another take if I’m not happy with the results. I usually do at least 2 versions before I’m happy with it.
I then import the file of the final take into iMovie, an Apple application for editing videos, and cut off dead space and add intro and outro titles. iMovie then exports the finished product directly to my YouTube account. I upload it as a private video to give me a chance to preview it and tweak the description and title before it goes live for the public.
On Windows, there is a superior product, called Camtasia, that can do that entire process in one application. Frustratingly, I’m not aware of a similar class of product on the Mac for creating screencasts.
And that is how I create screencasts! They are an underused tool by many organizations for things such as training on internal applications, introductions to new interfaces on your web site, demos for key stakeholders, you name it.
Here are links to the software, tools and sites mentioned above:
You may have noticed a few additional buttons and icons your Google search results lately. Google has rolled out a feature, called SearchWiki, that lets you rate up good items in your search results and remove irrelevant results. You have to be logged in with a Google account for these to show up.
Your ratings will be visible to others although they will not impact the order of others results. This provides a way, approved by Google, to modify your personal search results. It will be interesting to see if Google will use this input to modify overall search results now or in the future.
Here are a couple of interesting programs coming up from people I know.
Andy Steggles with RIMS is doing a presentation on December 17 about how his association used a virtual world for a conference. The entire conference was in the virtual world, to be specific. Demonstrating the key concept of eating your own dog food, Andy is doing this presentation in the same virtual world. Registration form from the New York Society of Association Executives. Looks to be free and no info page up, but you can sign up now via the form. UPDATE: Here is a page with full info on Andy’s program.
Angie Katselianos is holding a very exclusive workshop in Milan Italy next May on Image Building for Professional Success. I met Angie this summer in Rhode Island at a workshop for professional speakers. She has an impressive approach to style and communication and the workshop described on her web site sounds like a wonderful life experience.
I have a new teleconference recording available for purchase and download, called Creating High-value Partnerships with Technology Providers.
This teleconference was based on my fifteen years of experience in working and consulting on partnerships between organizations and their technology providers. I cover:
Learn my best tips and ideas on getting maximum value from your tech providers.
Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? However, that’s exactly what can happen with a poorly designed web site login. The login is often the gateway to most of the value that a site offers, yet it often receives scant attention from designers and developers when it is created.
Here are a few things you can do to review and improve your login:
Once you identify any problems, immediately meet with your web team to determine what needs to be changed and make it happen. Commit to getting in done in no more than one week.
Make sure your virtual front door is appealing and easy to open.
I can’t tell you how many people I’ve heard bemoan the limitations of draconian style and design guides for their corporate web site. It is a very common complaint and always happens to a certain extent. However, when the complaints are endemic it’s usually because the department that manages the site has determined their job is creating compliance rather than results.
The best web teams are those that focus on generating results above all else. Guides and standards can be very useful tools and I’ve helped to generate a bunch of them. However, they are a means to an end. Don’t let your guidelines become straight jackets that limit your ability to achieve fantastic results online.
The New York Times has had a couple of stories recently about ecommerce sales slowing down along with everything else. Here is a blog post from the Times on this. They are still growing but at a much slower pace.
There are some implications here for anyone who makes direct sales via their web site. The primary one is that the usability of your online store is more important now than ever. When times are good, it’s easy to ignore some loss of sales due to challenging interfaces. When numbers are no longer growing or even contracting, however, you can’t afford to lose anyone who wants to give you money.
Here are a few things to look for:
Once you have identified some improvements, drop everything until they are done. Otherwise they are less likely to be implemented. I’ve seen instances where a single small change had a 6-figure impact on revenue.
From the Wall Street Journal, a story about retailers using a combination of time/motion studies and software to squeeze efficiencies out of their staff. Stores Count Seconds to Trim Labor Costs:
Interviews with cashiers at 16 Meijer stores suggest that its system has spurred many to hurry up — and has dialed up stress levels along the way. Mr. Gunther, who is 22 years old, says he recently told a longtime customer that he couldn’t chat with her anymore during checkout because he was being timed. “I was told to get people in and out,” he says. Other cashiers say they avoid eye contact with shoppers and generally hurry along older or infirm customers who might take longer to unload carts and count money.
Efficiency has a lot of value but you have to be careful you aren’t undercutting your ability to deliver the same product or service at an equal or higher level of quality.
It reminds me a bit of Circuit City firing their highest-paid and most experienced sales people to cut costs and then watched their sales weaken just as they headed into our current economic mess. Genius!
If you don’t take my word on it, listen to Tony Rossell:
First of all, any change prompts people to look at new opportunities and solutions. We are clearly in the midst of great change as a society.
Secondly, during times of economic uncertainly, people look for an anchor. Professionally associations can be that anchor. Think for a second, if you knew your job was in jeopardy, isn’t one of the first places you would go for help your professional association or network. That is the place to make contacts, go to job boards, attend meetings, and interact on a listserv.
C. David Gammel, CAE 