Archive for December, 2008
December 23, 2008
Donors Looking for Financial Transparency
Interesting article on the WSJ site today about the impact of Madoff on future donations. After Madoff, Donors Grow Wary of Giving:
That’s changing amid a distressed economy and the disturbing news that many high-profile nonprofits, including the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, Yeshiva University and Steven Spielberg’s Wunderkinder Foundation, were hurt by Mr. Madoff’s alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Now, an increasing number of donors are losing confidence in the ability of such groups to safeguard their money.
The article discusses how many donors are asking pointed questions about how the charity or foundation is investing its money before they agree to donate. No one wants their donation to go into a ponzi scheme or otherwise poorly managed funds.
The article also points out some information that should be easily found and available on charity web sites, including IRS filings, investment strategy and allocations, and others. Basically, provide as much information as you can in an easily accessed format in order to assuage nervous donors.
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December 23, 2008
Social Media Presentation from Me in January
I am giving a webinar presentation for the Association Societies Alliance at 12 Noon Eastern on January 9, 2009. This is one of my more popular presentations in the past year: Social Media and Member Value: How to Create One with the Other.
Join David Gammel as he delves into creating value online for your members by examining one of the hottest trends on the Web: Social Media. David will take us past the hype and into pratical stategies for leveraging social media and other techniques to enhance the value you are contributing to your members and your mission.
The registration fee for this one is only $49, quite a deal!
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December 18, 2008
Ralph Lauren Flipping Online Advertising Strategy on Its Head
According to this post by Dylan Stableford, Ralph Lauren is building such a powerful media presence online that he questions their future need for traditional print advertising:
His presentation, though, should give publishers pause, too. If an advertiser is so ahead of the game online, and as print fades, why should they care about your Web site?
Very good question. If a retailer develops their own audience online with content, why would they need to advertise to the extent they had in the past?
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December 18, 2008
Two New Articles on the Site
I’ve added two articles to this site that appeared in ASAE publications.
Measuring Social Media: Identifying and Measuring Valuable Outcomes for Your Association
Supercharging Your Web Teams through Constant Development
Enjoy! There are 16 additional articles in that section of my site as well on a variety of topics.
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December 16, 2008
Blog House Keeping Note
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.
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December 16, 2008
David Gammel’s Web Strategy Report, Volume 1, Issue 8
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:
- How can you mix both logical and emotional appeals in your fundraising? (logic gets people to think, emotion gets them to act)
- What media do you already have that tends to have an emotional impact on your givers?
- Can that media be merged into your appeals for funds and other donations?
- What new media can you capture that will have even more impact?
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:
SnapZ Pro X
iMovie
Snowball Mic
Camtasia
YouTube
QuickTime
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December 12, 2008
Google SearchWiki
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.
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December 11, 2008
Plugging Two Programs from Colleagues
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.
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December 11, 2008
New Audio Product: Creating High-value Partnerships with Technology Providers
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:
- Identifying when you need a partner instead of a vendor;
- Key actions to take before, during and after a project to create and maintain strong relationships;
- Supporting collaboration among multiple vendors;
- What to do when things go wrong.
Learn my best tips and ideas on getting maximum value from your tech providers.
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December 1, 2008
Only 75% of Our Customers Can Open Our Front Door
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:
- Use it a few times! Don’t apply a saved username and password in your browser. Login manually as your first time or infrequently visitors do. This alone can reveal a lot of issues that you can fix.
- Observe some people using the login. Have your mother or grandfather try it.
- Analyze your web traffic and see if you are losing a lot of people at the login stage.
- Talk to people in your call center or anyone who fields customer complaints about the web site. I guarantee they will if your login is not working well for your visitors.
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.
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