With the proliferation of so many shiny digital tools over the past few years, who hasn’t been quick to add the latest and greatest tool only to find out that it hasn’t solved the problem it was intended to eliminate?  Instead, we’re left with another partial solution and different kinds of problems. 

Over time, these tools have accumulated and become an administrative burden that stretches the team too thin and created less-than-desired results.  Instead of leveraging the powerful collaboration tools of today’s internet (blogs, social networks, wikis, etc.), most organizations are working with static websites, mass email marketing blasts, and other one-way communication vehicles.  [I've seen a few organizations who're working with upwards of 8-10 different email newsletters to the same audience!] 

Unfortunately, a good portion of these organizations have been lulled into thinking their menagerie of digital tools is on the leading edge, instead of the patchwork solutions they really are.  

To borrow a metaphor from a client from my days of fundraising, these organizations are like the person who builds a house and then later decides to put an addition onto it.  Then adds another one later on.  And another.  And another.  Until this person is left with a monstrosity of house that has plenty of bells and whistles, but has been put together in an ad hoc way that creates more inefficiencies than it does benefits.    

Let’s admit it.  It’s time to step back to consider what you can do to transform your digital presence so that you’re staying ahead of the curve, not trying to catch up.  It’s time for a digital strategy. 

Other related posts:

Above the Canopy: The Value of a Strategic Viewpoint

Strategy First, Tools Second 

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Last week I spoke of a siteless web presence. And what I meant by that comment was that you need to stop thinking of your website as a destination stop and more of aggregator of all your web content. Pretty simple, huh?

But first things first. Your website should be a living breathing thing on the web. If you don’t know how to update your site – or if you need your web guy to do it then you need a new website. One with a CMS (content management system) behind it. Updates should be frequent and relevant – so you can get some Google love.

BTW, this doesn’t have to be expensive – it can be almost free if you don’t mind taking some time to piecemeal things together on the web like making a Wordpress blog into a full blown site and adding interesting information widgets like Google calendars/maps and cool stuff from Widget Box. There’s a lot more out there – these are just examples.

But looking at your website and saying this is the end-all be-all of my existent on the web is a mistake especially if you are making good content and treating your website like the media property it should be. You should be and can be everywhere at once.

(By media property, I mean you are treating it like a TV/news channel where you are throwing out good entertaining education on your products – and don’t ask me what these things are – you know what they are, you are a consumer. You’ve seen other websites product videos or blogs or forums or whatever and thought “Hey, that’s pretty cool.” That’s what I’m talking about.)

I kinda rambling today with all these tangents but I swear I will get back to my topic. Look here it is.

Siteless web presence means that you are putting your web information out in multiple locations on the web and making sure that people can take your information with them – if they want. One example would be that if you make a video – it should go on your site but it also should be out in all the places where people watch videos like YouTube and Revver and everywhere. You can even do it all at once with HeySpread.com.

Another thing – Don’t ask me why they would take it. I don’t read minds. But I will tell that they do take it for whatever reason. They take it and mash it up on their website or they use your product video in a blog they are writing.

So how do you get a siteless web presence?

I’ll save that for later this week.

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This week, I’ve been traveling throughout the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area.  The freeway system and I are on first-name basis with all the driving I have been doing.  I’ve spent time in Irvine, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Fernando, Ventura, Santa Barbara, Compton, Watts, and Beverly Hills.

Visiting these towns and cities, I realized that there is not much difference between how cities and the Internet work.  Both are communities of people.  And anytime you have a community of people, you also have commerce, philanthropy, learning, vice, and social interaction.

It’s easy to get lost and confused with all the technology, but think about it for a moment.  When you strip away all the zeros and ones, the Internet, websites, social networks, blogs, wikis, etc. are just extensions of how we’ve interacted with each other since the dawn of civilization.  Now, we don’t have to be located physically together.  Nor do we have to be interacting with each other at the same time.    

As I drove down Sunset Boulevard from Beverly Hills on my way to Pasadena, we saw all parts of the social spectrum.  I began to realize that I was seeing the same thing, but with different skins.  I saw places where people shopped.  I saw places where people lived.  I saw places where government decisions were made.  I saw where people got together and had a good time together.  I saw places where people gossiped and shared news stories.  I saw where people conducted business.

Isn’t that what it’s like on the Internet?  And aren’t all the Web 2.0 tools, just easier ways to do all those things?   

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After our last seminar, Social Media Mania, I received an email from an attendee about how to make a Google Map specific to their business. You know the kind where you have the little blue icon instead of a red one.

Here’s what I wrote her.

If you don’t have an account with Google, then sign up. It’s easy and free. I would recommend you make the gmail account for your company name like yourcompany@gmail.com. This way it can be easily transferred to another marketer down the road.

Once you have an account, go to Google Maps.

There will be a tab call My Maps. Click on it.

Click Create A Map.

Make a name for your map.

Make sure it’s set to Public.

Search for your location.

When it gives the red location spot, click on the it on the map.

It will say “Save to My Maps”

Click that link.

It will say “Which map would you like to save to?”

Select the “named” map.

You’ll have your map.

Then to add it to your website.

Click on “Link to this page” on the far right corner of the map.

There you can get the link or the HTML code to add to your site.

Now here’s something cool. Google lets you edit your business information and I totally recommend this.

To do this, get out of your Maps and then do a search for your business. Hopefully, it pops up.

Then click on the red dot on the map that shows your business location. There will be an “edit” button.

Click that link and set up your business.

At the end, they will call your business to verify you are the owner. They will give you a four-digit code. Put that in and your business will be on the map with more information than just a location.

Now you know how to do it yourself.

Google Maps makes it easier on people to find your location and anything that makes it easier on your customers is worth putting on your website.

Here’s an example.

And here’s one with an actual path from location to location.

If your locations are moving or you want people to enter their information and then it just show up on a map, MediaSauce has done this for customers as well.

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Here’s my two cents about Inc. Mag. And don’t get me wrong – I love the mag – but they are always a bit behind the times when it comes to new media and technology. I really miss Business 2.0 – I can’t believe they shut it down and replaced my 2.0 with Fortune – what a waste.

So with the article, “Tapping The Community Pool” in the latest issue, they basically talk about how Social Communities via forums or wikis or blogs are allowing customers to help answer each other questions about products. Wow, that’s so 2003.

The example they give is a pool company (www.poolcenter.com) that has a large forum with 5000 registered users. They have their techs online to answer any questions about their products but a lot of times other customers answer the question before an online tech can get to it.

I don’t know if any of you have a Treo, but Palm’s entire support is based in community forums and a lot of times you can’t even get a tech to answer you. They just redirect you to another customer’s post on how to solve a problem.

I’m a huge fan of Ning and they have two communities for support – both creators and developers. Both of these are filled with workarounds and tips from other customers.

I’ve always pushed for community development around any company’s service or product. Now I almost always get somebody who will tell me they don’t need a full blown social community – that there is too many already. The funny thing is that this is usually from someone that doesn’t use any social communities. There’s a cartoon out there floating around (I should have saved the link) showing a guy signing up for a social community network. Afterwards he says, “That’s it. I officially have more social networks than friends.”

That’s probably the case for me.

I’ve got Facebook, my church, my wellness doctor, my family, my company, my marketing network, linkedin, twitter, and this damn blog.

Maybe you think that is too many…but I don’t think so. I think we go in and out of social communities all day long – the net just made them virtual and gave them names.

A little future gazing here – but I believe that our social identities will become more and more important on the web to the fact that websites will change when we visit them depending on the profile we are using to visit them. I’m also into siteless web presence for companies (you don’t need a website as much as you need a presence on many, many websites) as well but I’ll talk about that in a different blog.

Wow, I’ve really gotten far away from my topic. What I wanted to say about the article is that they don’t mention how much Google loves forums, blogs and wikis. There’s a whole host of reasons that I’ll explain in the future but Google digs the relevant content, the new content, the old content, all the keywords and a whole host of other things associated with these communities and there’s a good chance your community will pop up before your website.

And if Google can see you, then the world can. They don’t even mention that in the article.

To prove my point, search for me on Google. Don Schindler. A while back this guy with my exact same name used to dominate Google because he was a Scientologist and he wrote a few articles. But not anymore.

So this blog is a little longer than I wanted.

Remember this though, maybe you don’t think a community is right for you now. Well, all I have to say is, imagine how hard it will be to start one five years from now. The web is in its infancy and you could build an established base right now.

And if you need help, MediaSauce (who I work for) can help you out. You don’t have to go this alone and you’d be surprised how inexpensive it is to set this stuff up.

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No!!!!! The last thing you need to do is replace the person who knows your company inside and out and is dedicated to spreading the word about your success.

But you do need to understand that they probably need some love and attention.

For a small business, having a marketer is a true benefit. Most of the time it’s the CEO or President or the new intern who just came on board (BTW, that is a seriously bad move – the last person I would want to be giving first impressions about my company is the new intern – no matter how cute they are).

But that marketer may need some help. This is no longer a world of brochures, radio spots, TV ads and tradeshows. Or even static brochure-like websites.

Your “new” marketer needs to understand the basics of new media – especially if you, like many others, believe that the web is the most efficient way to reach new customers and reconnect with old ones.

Your marketer is used to start and stop flight dates. They are used to working hard on brochures and flowery language or a biannual magazine and huge annual report. They may not even be used rules of social networking, blogs and forums.  They may not understand what a widget can do.

So instead of shouting at them to get these new Web 2.0 components online, maybe you should be asking the marketer what kind of education do you need before we jump in and start conversing on the net.

Let me tell you – they aren’t going to get that from a one-time seminar from MediaSauce or by reading a book. They need to be immersed in it. They need to spend some time learning and USING Web 2.0 things before they start a social community or a blog or a forum.

I’ve set up hundreds of social tools. Some have done great and some have failed miserably. There have been almost none in between. What was the difference? The marketer behind the wheel. If he/she understood how to use the tools, how to listen to the audience and participate, the social tool flourished.

If you are thinking that you don’t need these kinds of things for your business, then I wonder why you are even reading this blog. There’s some irony for you.

Here’s a list of things that I believe your marketer needs to know before you go Web 2.0:

1. Enthusiasm for the possibilities of the web – if they are not on board, don’t force it. They will sabotage the online effort and then tell you “I told you so.”
2. Learn the nuances of social networking as a person not a marketer. Social media marketing must be authentic and subtle. If you are shouting about how great you and your product are, they will black hat you in a heartbeat.  If you want to know where to start socializing, then email me and I’ll tell you.
3. Learn some HTML – seriously. It’s not that difficult. And it’s part of the job. If they have to hunt down the web guy every time they need something done on your website then you are wasting both the web guy’s and the marketer’s time.
4. Experiment with different tools. There are tons and tons of great FREE resources out there. Don’t buy the first one you see or use. Never get locked into technology unless you know they are stable in the marketplace (like Google). In other words, there are ways to get things done by mashing new technologies together instead of buying a custom solution. Like for instance, this wordpress site can actually be made into a normal looking website with a great CMS tool behind it.

There are many other things that marketers need now.  Don’t expect your in-house guy or gal to be able to pull off every little marketing thing that comes along.

Prioritize the marketing list.  If you are updating brochures every couple of months and they are sweating over every last detail of the brochure, you might want to go digital so they can change things on the fly.

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, right?  Well, for marketers, it makes it harder because now you guys want us to do all the new stuff and maintain the old ways of marketing.  You can’t have both unless you add more hands.

Maybe this is all wrong and most marketers out there would like to keep doing the same things year after year but if you aren’t doing social media now, how hard do you think this job will be in five years when you are just getting into it.  I personally like to learn when everyone else is.

What do you think?

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Here’s the article from Cynopsis Digital for website of the day:

Fox has hired online crowdsourcing firm Passenger to build an online community of viewers around Fox shows to help executives make more informed programming and marketing decisions. Passenger will help the network test programming concepts, plot direction, character evolution and marketing schemes by empowering a group of dedicated users to chime in during the development process. Passenger is one of a few cutting edge firms entertainment studios are working with to the help ping the crowd before committing millions of dollars to production and marketing budgets, (a trend I will be exploring in a panel on crowdsourcing at the NATPE LATV Festival next month.) They also recently worked with Damon Lindelof and Carton Cuse, the showrunners of ABC’s Lost, to help determine which episode to submit to Emmy voters this year, (not an easy task for a serialized show.) The first order of business for Fox community members will be to offer feedback on Fox’s fall line up.

I know you are looking at me and saying, “What the heck is crowdsourcing?”

Here’s what Wikipedia says, “Crowdsourcing is a neologism for the act of taking a task traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people, in the form of an open call. For example, the public may be invited to develop a new technology, carry out a design task, refine an algorithm or help capture, systematize or analyze large amounts of data (see also citizen science).”

To me, it’s getting your online customers involved in whatever you are doing. There are people very interested in what you do if you give them a voice.

A lot of marketers aren’t too interested in the crowd because of the work involved (communities require constant care and attention in the beginning like a new plant but once they take root you can watch them grow) and they tend to throw you curveballs. Like you swore something would work but then it didn’t – as a marketer – you can blame a half of dozen different things. But with crowdsourcing and communities, you have a lot of real feedback and if they don’t like your idea – then your idea sucked not the other excuses.

Anyway, I’m glad Fox is going this way with their line-up. Who knows maybe TV won’t suck in the future?

What do you think?

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For the past ten years, I have devoured every book produced by The Gallup Organization and have been helping our team understand and leverage their powerful research and principles.  So it was with great excitement that I opened the latest Gallup Management Journal to see their top story – “Does Your Technology Engage Your Customers?“.

[I encourage you to click the link, since they usually archive these stories pretty quickly.]

After posting my reply, I thought I’d share it with you here:

We are passionate evangelists for the Gallup Organization’s principles and very pleased to see you explore the opportunities to drive greater engagement through the right understanding and use of technology.Without a doubt, we have moved out of the Industrial Age through the Information Age and into the Interconnected Age.  This new era, defined by the fundamental shift in how people can connect and engage with others, is redefining all aspects of our lives.  Our growing awareness of how we as individuals connect to the rest of the world is forcing us to reexamine the simple and complex parts of life.

To quote our company’s philosophy – “As long as we’ve occupied this little speck of universal dust called Earth, human beings have been trying to connect with one another.  First it was through grunts and gestures, then words and pictures, and now, networks and pixels.  While technology advances our abilities and our capacities, our human needs remain the same—to understand the world that surrounds us, and build meaningful relationships to share our findings with others.”

I think of Tom Rath’s book “Vital Friends” and the powerful idea that the greatest opportunity we have for growth is in the connection between ourselves and others.  Within each connection, we create a mosaic of experiences.  Those experiences shape the impressions that drive the emotional response that leads us to form our perception of the other.  For companies, we call that “the brand”.  Every point of interaction – in person, print, radio, TV, digital, etc. – shapes that mosaic.

Nothing can replace the robust impressions of face-to-face interactions.  But, how can you fill the spaces in between these interactions with other impressions far more robust than static brochures?  With the right strategy that incorporates the right mix of powerful storytelling and tools (sharp design interfaces, blogs, videos, animations, social networks, etc.), an organization can fill the space with meaningful interactions that drive greater engagement – for internal and external constituencies.  Better yet, these interactions can happen at the time and place of your audiences’ choosing.

Keep pursuing this concept and you can help the rest of the Gallup Organization community interweave your powerful principles in ways you would have only imagined ten years ago.

So what are your thoughts – is it the technology or the people driving engagement?

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Today, at 9:00 AM EDT, I achieved an important milestone in human history.  I traveled through time.  

I started my day at 9 am on Thursday by having a phone meeting with someone at 4 pm on Friday.  We met for about 45 minutes, reviewed a couple websites together, and agreed to schedule another conversation in a couple weeks.  At the end of the meeting, it was 9:45 am on Thursday.

This isn’t a joke.  I really did it and I have to give all the credit to the Internet. Let me provide a little more detail to help you understand what happened.  

About a week ago, I exchanged emails with Curt Kenoyer, who works for the Qatar Foundation at their Education City in Dohar, Qatar in the Middle East.  We agreed to meet at 9 AM EDT today.  When Curt called me at the appointed time (using Skype, the internet phone service), it was actually 4pm local time at his office.

[The bold vision the Qatar government has forged to create a truly unique center of learning where the East and West come together is truly remarkable.  I encourage you to learn more about them.]

During a couple points in our conversation, I sent him email links to relevant websites to demonstrate a few concepts.  Instead of having to describe them, he could instantaneously view them with his own eyes.  (See them for yourself here: Tamarindo Touring Company and Butler University Vodcast Series).

As we said our good-byes, Curt relished the fact that he had a one-day head start on me with the weekend.  I did point out the he had a “head start” on the work week, too.

To celebrate this great accomplishment, I fixed myself some toast and then started a three-way phone meeting with Bryan Gray, our CEO, who was in downtown Indianapolis, and a person in Athens, Georgia.  From Qatar to Indy to Athens and back to Indy.  

Not bad for just one morning.  The only thing I missed out on was the frequent flier mileage. 

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How much time are you spending just keeping up with producing the various content it takes to market and promote your company?  How about the content you need to communicate your vision, values, and philosophies to your internal audiences and other stakeholders?

In more than a few recent conversations with different organizations, it has become apparent that people are having a hard time keeping up with pushing out their message and are spending little to no time on learning new ways to connect their messages to their audiences (and vice versa) – let alone finding ways to help their audience help them spread the word.

I’m a big fan of Stephen Covey and still remember reading 7 Habits of Highly Successful People and number of his other books (check out his new web community).  As a presenter and writer, he understands the power of visual models.  The power of showing how you can fill a glass vessel (your day) full by starting with the big rocks (important tasks), then smaller stones (minor tasks), and finally sand (trivial tasks).  And when you try it the opposite way, it doesn’t work.

As I was driving on the road today, I pulled another one from my memory banks that relates directly to the problem of keeping up with content vs. finding new ways to share that content.  It’s the metaphor of how leaders are like adventurers hacking through the jungle with machetes.  By following your compass (your values & principles), you can navigate the dense, thick jungle.  

However, it is crucial to climb a ladder from time to time to find the horizon.  When you peak above the forest canopy, you will see where you are in relation to the goal and can adjust your path accordingly.  And, more importantly, you can make sure you’re even in the right forest.  Because, why put all that effort, if you’re not.

As I think about those organizations who are struggling to keep up with generating content to fill their communication vehicles, I know they can all benefit from climbing the ladder and seeing if there’s a better way out of the jungle.  In just the past couple years, we have seen some amazing new communication tools come of age, making life much easier for everyone using them (Facebook, FriendFeed, YouTube, Twitter, etc.)

Taking a comprehensive look at your digital presence will help you figure out how to best integrate recent concepts like blogs, social networks, Twitter, RSS feeds, and a host of other social media that make it easier and more enjoyable to share your powerful story with the world and let them tell it for you.  

What are some of the things you doing today that you might be able to stop and replace with something better?

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