Author Archives: David

On Launching and Marketing a Redesigned Web Site

Posted on by David
Reply

There was an interesting thread last week on a list I subscribe to about how to best launch a major web site redesign. I ended up writing a white paper in response on how to best prepare for a web site launch from a technical standpoint: Five Critical Steps for a Successful Web Site Launch.

There was also a discussion of whether you should market the new site in advance or launch it quietly without fanfare. In my view, the decision should be driven by your overall goals and confidence in your timelines.

If the new site is the embodiment of a major initiative, making a splash with the launch may be in order. However, if you are not highly confident in your ability to stay on schedule, the soft launch will ameliorate a lot of potential risk.

Finally, when you do market the new site, focus on the new value it provides to visitors rather than the fact it is new. This sounds obvious but it is easy to lose sight of after the organization has invested so many resources in the effort.

The Only Interesting Use of Twitter I Have Seen

Posted on by David
1

Adrian Bye went to Cuba and twittered from within the revolution. He is back home now but it was fascinating to read his miniature travelogue while he explored the island. Adrian couldn’t receive calls or texts while he was in Cuba, so he had no idea how many people might be reading his twitter posts.

Adrian is now posting several long entries in his blog about his experience in Cuba. Definitely worth checking out to hear his first hand account of what life in Cuba is like today.

Big Book Stores and Amazon

Posted on by David
Reply

So, when you compare Amazon to Barnes and Noble or Borders (just on book selling), how are they fundamentally different?

All three sell online and, while Amazon is still the best, the other two have reasonably easy interfaces for selling books. What is left? Physical stores. B&N and Borders have the liability and asset of a physical retail presence in many communities across the country. However, they fail horribly to the leverage the two together to improve overall sales.

If you are looking for a physical retail store, it is likely because you want to buy a book right away. If you are willing to wait a few days, you can just order online. But if you want it right now, say before you catch a flight that afternoon, you want to know if the store near you is carrying the title before making the trek out there. Making retail inventory available for search by store seems like a no-brainer. It relieves floor staff from having to answer as many phone calls and enables customers to find out if they can buy more immediately.

However, Borders buries this feature several levels down in their site and B&N doesn’t even offer it. What a wasted opportunity.

The ideal interface, I think, would be to set a cookie for the user’s zip code at some point and then offer local retail inventory results along with online inventory.

Gee, that sounds simple. Why don’t they do it? My guess would be that their performance measures don’t reward cross-selling between physical and online operations.

Is IT Head Count a Relevant Benchmark?

Posted on by David
Reply

I posted this question to an ASAE list earlier this week in response to a discussion of average IT positions per staff: do IT staffing averages serve much purpose these days?

My opinion is that, with so many options for outsourcing some functions combined with the increasing role of technology in operations (countervailing trends to a certain extent), I don’t think an average is going to be all that meaningful without a lot of additional controlling data that isn’t available in most studies. Similar organizations can have very different approaches to how much they use technology and how aggressively they outsource commodity functions. An average IT head count number won’t tell you anything useful on its own.

Pre-requisites for a Successful Small Business Web Site

Posted on by David
Reply

There are 6 pre-requisites for a successful small business web site. The are:

  1. Have one!
  2. It lists location, hours and contact information prominently on the home page.
  3. Services and/or products are clearly identified in general on the home page and in detail on dedicated pages.
  4. They qualify that they are the best source for whatever the business provides.
  5. The design looks reputable.
  6. They have updated their listings in the local search engines for Google and Yahoo!.

Hitting each of the above won’t guarantee success but it will prevent fundamental flaws from preventing the best possible outcomes for a business with their web site.

The above is based on part of my presentation to the American Association of Endodontists a couple weeks ago.

First Product Wiki in the Association Space?

Posted on by David
Reply

Avectra, vendor of one of the major association management systems, has launched a public wiki to support their products.
This is the first public wiki to support an association-dedicated product that I am aware of. I think there is a good chance this will build critical mass with their customers. Association staff are going to have high incentive to contribute since this is such a major part of their management systems yet there are few to no resources, such as commercially published books, on the subject.

It might work better if the user groups dedicated to the AMS vendors launched their own wikis, maintaining some independence.

(Spotted on Wes Trochlil’s blog.)

What information should a consultant share with a client about the RFP process?

Posted on by David
9

I heard from an executive recently that the consultant helping them to select their content management system had a highly qualified list of vendors they had researched and were sending requests to those who best matched their needs. So far, so good. However, the consultant refuses to share or discuss the list of vendors with the client!

This presents a few problems:

  • It shows contempt for the client on the part of the consultant;
  • It prevents the client from providing their highly valuable take on the prospective vendors as part of the selection process;
  • How does the client know they are really talking to more than one vendor?

Does your buyer agent Realtor present you with a single house? Does a car salesman show you only one vehicle, take it or leave it? Of course not.

There is no business need or ethical basis for not sharing and discussing the list of potential vendors with a client, in my not-so-humble opinion. It is simply bad practice. Any consultant doing so is not serving their client nor themselves well.

Transforming Association Work and Careers with the Web

Posted on by David
Reply

I’ll be hosting a live chat session with ASAE’s Emerging Leaders community this Friday at 2 p.m. eastern. The overall topic is how the Web can be used to transform association work and careers. I’ll talk about whatever people are interested in but our starting points will include:

  • Creating member value online;
  • Tapping into self forming groups;
  • Creating a personal professional presence online;
  • Developing a web career in the association world.

You must be registered with the community to join in, so be sure to take care of that at least a day before the event. Hope to see you in the chat on Friday!