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August 22, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Writing Content for the Web

Web content is different than content in a magazine or in other media. So much of the time I see web sites that are filled with pages and pages of dry, long-winded, boring content that is doing nothing to help connect with the site visitor. There are plenty of web sites that contain beautiful imagery and great design work but then fail to complete the package with good content. Here are some guidelines for writing good web site content.

Less is more. People reading a magazine have time to read articles and stories. They are sitting down with a paper publication and are expecting to invest 15 minutes into a reading session. On the web, attention spans are measured in seconds. For this reason, web content must get to the point very quickly and directly. When someone is visiting a web site, it’s usually because that person is looking for a solution, getting a question answered, buying a product, or trying to achieve some other specific goal. This means that most people will have very little patience with web pages that ramble and take more than a few seconds to digest.

Use bullet points. Since web content needs to be action-oriented and get straight to the point, bullets points often help your readers scan and digest text very quickly.

Break paragraphs with a double line break and no indentation. In a book or paper publication, indented paragraphs are the norm. In web pages (and in emails, as well), paragraphs should not be indented and should be separated by a double line break. This improves readability.

Use polished grammar. While this seems obvious, I continue to see web sites riddled with grammar mistakes, typos, and broken sentences. Content on the web should be written with the same care that would go into a magazine article or a book. Polished, professionally-written web site content will dramatically boost the credibility of your organization.

Keep it constituent-focused. A constituent is a customer, a donor, a member, or some other type person with an interest in your organization. That person is taking the time to read the content on your web site. The content on your web site should connect with that person and show him or her the value gained from your solution, product, service, or mission. Some amount of self-promotion is acceptable but should not become the focus of your message. Instead, keep the majority of your content focused on the benefits to your constituents. Another great direction for your web site content is to tell stories about how your organization helped other customers solve a problem. Case studies like this take the focus off of self-promotion and place it onto your constituents. This gives your content higher perceived value, which builds trust.

Content is often the most neglected piece of a web site. Be sure to present a complete package to your site visitors with effective professional content. Crafting your message carefully can dramatically improve trust with your constituents which leads to greater success for your organization.

Filed Under: Marketing, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: ,
August 19, 2008 By 1 Comment

How To Achieve Meeting Zen

Meetings get a bad rap. To most, the word “meeting” conjures up unpleasant images of bored business people sitting around a conference table or on a conference call listening to material that doesn’t interest them while wishing they were somewhere else. Why have meetings become so hated and so generally unproductive? Personally, I blame all parties involved. Both the meeting leaders and participants are responsible for creating engaging, productive meetings and there are many things that all parties can do to create better results.

Have an agenda and stick to it. For some reason, meetings tend to bring out everyone’s desires to ramble about various personal topics in front of the audience in the room. This leads to straying off topic, tangents, and “rabbit holes” that go nowhere. This is usually caused by people not reading the agenda before the meeting, which causes them to show up unprepared and focus on things other than the topics at hand. Meeting leaders can help by sending out a clear agenda and keeping the meeting on topic by gently squelching stray conversations.

Start on time. This is one of the hardest things to do. People have a natural tendency to wander in on their own schedules and when multiple people are involved, this leads to a build-up up pre-meeting chatter which can be difficult to rein in. Furthermore, it is disrespectful of everyone’s time when a meeting starts late. It was scheduled at a certain time and it should start at that time. Ending on time is also important.

Eliminate side chatter. When someone is speaking, do not start a side conversation with your neighbor. This may seem innocent and natural but it is extremely rude to the person speaking and slows the entire meeting down. When someone had the floor, look at that person, be engaged, listen, and don’t interrupt. If everyone did this, meetings would start getting dramatically shorter.

Silence means consent. I loved this point which was explained in the article “Meetings suck, but they don’t have to” (CNet). If you ask a question and no one responds, take it as consent and move on. Don’t try to badger people into a response – this wastes time.

Don’t beat dead horses. When an outcome is reached, move on. There is no need to re-hash decisions or points. Learn to recognize when a topic is resolved and avoid dragging it out.

Don’t be afraid to table things. Learn to recognize when a discussion is going nowhere and table it. If you can see that no resolution will be reached during this meeting or that the group is missing information or substance needed to move forward, table the topic for a future meeting and move on.

Think in outcomes. Rather than thinking of a meeting as a big group discussion, think in terms of “what is the outcome of this discussion”. Is there a problem to be solved? A decision to be made? An action to be defined? By keeping your eye on the goal in mind, you will remain focused on results, rather than on just talking.

These are a few guidelines for improving the quality of your meetings. It doesn’t guarantee that all meetings wil be fun, but it can improve everyone’s level of satisfaction and productivity.

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Productivity Tagged With:
August 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Using Google Apps for Efficient Business Communication

At SpinWeb, we are always looking for ways to streamline our business practices, create more efficient systems, and implement smart customer service methods. We have noticed over the years that email and communications has always been a pain point for many organizations and so we would like to share a way that we’ve found to enjoy a more zen-like state of email and group communications. We use Google Apps.

Google Apps (short for “Google Applications”) is a suite of applications from Google that includes email, calendaring, instant messaging, and shared documents. Google Apps allows organizations to implement a full groupware suite at no cost at all. There is no setup fee, no hardware to buy, and no ongoing fee. Though there is a corporate level which includes a nominal yearly fee, the basic services are all free. So what does Google Apps include?

Email. If you’ve ever used Gmail, you know how powerful and easy to use it is. By using Google Apps for your business, you get Gmail but branded with your organization’s domain name. All of your employees or team members can have “yourname@yourcompany.com” email addresses and can access it via a Gmail web interface. You also have the option of using Outlook, Apple Mail, iPhones, Blackberries, or pretty much any other email program or device.

Spam/Virus Filtering. Email through Google Apps comes with outstanding spam and virus filtering. It is all handled seamlessly with no setup or configuration. We have found the accuracy of Google’s filtering to be excellent.

Group Calendaring. Google Apps includes a robust group calendering feature which give you the ability to manage multiple calendars as well as see other team members’ calendars for group scheduling. Calendars can be synced with Outlook, iCal, iPhone, Blackberries, or almost any other major calendaring program. Syncing can also be done “through the air”. For example, if you add an event on your iPhone, it will instantly show up on your Google calendar and vice-versa.

Group Instant Messaging. Google Apps also comes with built-in IM via Google Talk. Your organization can utilize the built-in chat server to see when other team members are online and can keep in touch via instant messenger.

Group Document Management. One great feature of Google Apps is its free office suite. Using Google Docs, Google Spreadsheet, and Google Presentation, your organization can have a free set of office applications that are hosted “in the cloud”. Additionally, your team can collaborate by editing a single document as a team and track changes online.

At SpinWeb, we manage Google Apps accounts for our clients as a courtesy. We have found that utilizing Google Apps has given us a powerful business communication system that rivals many of the “enterprise” systems in use today. Interested in implementing Google Apps in your organization? Contact SpinWeb to learn how.

Filed Under: Productivity, Technology Tagged With: , ,
August 3, 2008 By 5 Comments

Using Google Apps for Wireless Syncing With Your iPhone

For those of you who have tried using MobileMe in a workplace setting, you may be as frustrated as I have been with the lack of groupware features. MobileMe does offer wireless syncing but does not give us very robust shared calendaring features. We could use Exchange, but since we are an all-Mac shop at SpinWeb, using an Exchange server for our email, calendaring, and contacts seems, well, dirty. Since we are using Google Apps for our email, it would be nice to utilize the rest of Google’s applications for groupware but it seemed that it was not possible.

This weekend, however, I discovered some new information that changed everything. The first major event was Google’s new feature of allowing two-way syncing of iCal to Google Calendars with CalDAV. Awesome! Now I can sync up iCal with my Google Calendar. Next, I discovered a great service called NuevaSync, which allows you to sync your iPhone calendar with your Google calendar. It also lets you sync your iPhone contacts with your Google contacts. And since the Apple Address Book already lets you sync your contacts with Google, we now have a total solution for mail (IMAP), contacts, and calendaring – all using Google Apps as the “cloud”.

This is great news, since MobileMe is somewhat broken and costs $99/year anyway. By using Google Apps, we now have a free solution that offers better functionality. I tested it out and it works great. I placed events on my iCal and they immediately showed up on my iPhone. Same with contacts. Who needs Exchange! ;-)

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Productivity, Technology Tagged With: