Power of Email Broadcasts

Ron Cates with Constant Contact put on an excellent seminar today!  The first half was a presentation by Network Solutions about search engine optimization (SEO). I'll write more on that later. But I just have to share some amazing numbers Ron shared about email broadcasts. I'm including newsletters, announcements, promotions in that general "broadcast" group.

• On average, you make $55 for every $1 spent on email marketing.
• 25% of all emails change in the course of a year so you have to be continuously monitoring your database.
• 95% read their personal email at the office. So even if you're sending to a home email, it probably won't be read until they get to work!
• Best time to send broadcasts is Tuesday between 10 am and 3 pm.
• 60% say they open the email based on the "From". So if you're using some vague email address you're hurting your open rate. Use your name or the company name very clearly.
• 30% say they open the email based on the "Subject". Again, use your company brand in either company name or slogan. Also put a call to action in the subject line.
• There is a 75% higher open rate if your Subject has 49 characters or less. Subjects of 50+ characters are perceived as sloppy.
• Content is king! People read 25% slower online than they do in hard copy. So your message must be more concise and more clearly presented in broadcasts.

Your Computer Lady has been using Constant Contact for quite awhile for our broadcasts as well as our clients'.  I'd be happy to answer questions for you about their services or about emailing in general. It is a powerful tool that has a very low expense. You can ask questions here by posting a Comment. Or share a broadcast story with us!

Thank you, Carrye!

Thank you, Carrye Walla, for introducing me to http://www.1001fonts.com/  They have some great fonts and most of them are Freeware.

Administrative Support - Patrick Lyons, Realtor

Pat first contacted me about doing some ACT! training since he was switching from Goldmine to ACT!  While he stills calls with an occasional ACT! question, the majority of his calls are administrative support projects. He needs to do a mailing or he wants to do a broadcast email. Pat realizes that there are some computer tasks that just aren't worth his time to learn. He wouldn't use them often enough to justify the learning time or retention efforts. So he'll call me occasionally and we'll take care of a task. Often in less than an hour. We use GoToMeeting since it allows me to work on his computer with his data.

I love that fact that Pat feels comfortable enough with me to stop me when I go into lecture mode and tell me, "Pamela, that's more than I need to know right now! Tell me that later!"   I hope to develop that level of confidence with all of my clients.

To learn more about Patrick and his real estate services, check his web site.

Equipment Upgrade - Centered on Success

No, I haven't started doing hardware work!  I have excellent partners to help you with hardware. However, before you make a hardware upgrade of any type, you need to consider your productivity uses and needs for that hardware.

For example, Saturday morning Sue Kiernan, the President of Centered on Success, and I met via GoToMeeting to discuss upgrading her new cell phone and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant).  We talked first about what she wanted her cell phone to do then what she wanted her PDA to do. Included in that part of the discussion was weighing a move from ACT! to Outlook. Which software she was going to use made a direct impact on which hardware she needed.

We worked through her list of needs and prioritized them. Then we looked at some research data I had about cell phones. When we got to the details about the phones themselves, I referred her to her carrier and we made a list of questions for her to ask.

Sue emailed later in the day to let me know she had decided on the Treo wx with Windows Mobile.

Outlook Training - Charity Charms

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to do a 3 hour training session with the staff at Charity Charms. There was a wide range of experience in the group but they were willing to help each other and to learn new techniques to improve their productivity and communications. Each person has the independence to set their own schedule but they have to coordinate for trade shows and special events. Outlook is a great tool for them. We will soon be expanding by linking Outlook in with SharePoint to give even greater capabilities.

If you belong to an organization that needs a clever, innovative fund raiser, check out Charity Charms!

Realistic Search Engine Optimization Expectations

Another Jill Whalen article. October, 2005

Full article...

Common Sense Search Engine Optimization

Jill Whalen with HighRankings.com is one of my favorite authors on Search Engine Optimization. This article is from July, 2004 but is still very pertinent.

Full article...

weblogs: a history and perspective

Rebecca's Pocket September 7, 2000

In 1998 there were just a handful of sites of the type that are now identified as weblogs (so named by Jorn Barger in December 1997). Jesse James Garrett, editor of Infosift, began compiling a list of "other sites like his" as he found them in his travels around the web. In November of that year, he sent that list to Cameron Barrett. Cameron published the list on Camworld, and others maintaining similar sites began sending their URLs to him for inclusion on the list. Jesse's 'page of only weblogs' lists the 23 known to be in existence at the beginning of 1999.

Full article...

Six Tips for Corporate Bloggers

Business Week cover story May 2, 2005

You can't afford to miss this wave -- and even more important, you can't afford to do it wrong

Blogs represent an explosion of information, from inside and outside companies. Those who figure out how to mine this treasure while protecting their own gems will fare just fine in the new world. But it's a risky world, full of hazards. Here are six tips for companies setting out into the blogosphere:

Full article...

Blogging: A Primer

The key words you need to know to understand blogging.

Business Week  cover story May 2, 2005

Primer

Blogs Will Change Your Business

Business Week    cover story May 2, 2005

Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up...or catch you later

Full article...

Educational Blogging

Educause Review vol. 39, no. 5 (Sep/Oct 2004)

"I think it’s the most beautiful tool of the world and it allows us the most magic thing..."

—Florence Dassylva-Simard, fifth-grade student

The bell rings, and the halls of Institut St-Joseph in Quebec City echo the clatter of the fifth- and sixth-graders. Some take their chairs in the more traditional classroom on the lower floor. Others attend to their projects in the large, open activity room upstairs, pausing perhaps to study one of the chess games hanging on the wall before meeting in groups to plan the current project. A third group steps up a half flight of stairs into the small narrow room at the front of the building, one wall lined with pictures and plastercine models of imagined aliens, the other with a bank of Apple computers.

Full article...

Stephen Downes (http://www.downes.ca/) is a Senior Researcher with the E-Learning Research Group, National Research Council Canada, Moncton, New Brunswick. Comments on this article can be sent to the author at <stephen@downes.ca>.

What is Blogging?

elise.com: On the Job
October 17, 2003

If you are twenty-something or younger, you probably don’t need to be reading this. You’ve probably been happily blogging away for what seems like years, all your friends blog, you read their blogs, and they yours. But for those of us over forty, or with families to care for and busy jobs to do, or perhaps our attention has just been someplace else for the last two years, we may not have even heard the term, or if we had, it sounded like "flogging" and not wanting to go there, we just ignored it.

Full article...

Meet Joe Blog

Time June 13, 2004
by Lev Grossman

A few years ago, Mathew Gross, 32, was a free-lance writer living in tiny Moab, Utah. Rob Malda, 28, was an underperforming undergraduate at a small Christian college in Michigan. Denis Dutton, 60, was a professor of philosophy in faraway Christchurch, New Zealand. Today they are some of the most influential media personalities in the world. You can be one too.

Full article...

Smart Phones

The new name should probably be BrilliantPhones, especially this year with the introduction of the iPhone. SmartPhones with a camera and calendar and – imagine this – a phone! are almost outdated. Each manufacturer is rushing to add features while carriers compete on options and family plans. Then why do 80% of all cell phone users hate their phones? Bad shopping by the company IT person, a family member (never trust anyone under 20 to buy your phone) or even themselves.

When shopping for a Smartphone, the first decision to make is which operating system to use. There are three main systems currently but Symbian which has been the leader in Europe is gaining ground in the US. Apple OS could become a strong number four if their product lives up to its hype.

BlackBerry

• email focused
• can connect to corporate or web-based email server
• few 3rd party applications

Microsoft Windows Mobile

• includes mobile versions of Word, Excel, Outlook
• sync’s with PCs and Microsoft Exchange Servers
• lots of 3rd party applications especially GPS and Internet applications

Palm OS

• PIM (Personal Information Manager) focused
• lots of 3rd party applications including ACT! the leading contact management software

Apple OS X

• ultra-mini PC with a phone
• partnered with Google for web browsing, email, GPS
  touchscreen with QWERTY keyboard and icons

There are some proprietary Operating Systems, however, they offer fewer features and very few 3rd party applications. Beware!

Phones are generally tied to carrier but can be unlocked to change carriers. When buying your Smartphone, consider which carrier offers you the best coverage in your local area and the regions you travel in most often. Smartphones generally require a service contract so you are tied to a carrier for a considerable period of time. Often there is a trade off between a lower phone cost and a longer contract. Think before you sign!

Also look carefully at the contract and how it handles data time (web browsing, wireless email, etc.) and call time. Some carriers combine the two. Some charge separately. Some even separate text messaging from wireless email for two charges. Consider which type of data you’ll be using the most and which plan offers you the best price.

For me, the most exciting feature of the iPhone is the touch screen. Those little bitty keys on the Qwerty keyboard frustrate my over-40 eyes and chubby fingers. And we won’t even go into the acrylic nails fiascos! The iPhone touchscreen is made for fingers and promises to eliminate the Palm stylus and dependence on the little keys.

Pronounced kwer-tee, refers to the arrangement of keys on a standard English computer keyboard or typewriter. The name derives from the first six characters on the top alphabetic line of the keyboard.
The arrangement of characters on a QWERTY keyboard was designed in 1868 by Christopher Sholes, the inventor of the typewriter. According to popular myth, Sholes arranged the keys in their odd fashion to prevent jamming on mechanical typewriters by separating commonly used letter combinations.

Not only can you get directions but you can use your Smartphone to find a Chinese restaurant within 10 miles of you location. Your phone knows where you are. Special software lets you locate your friends. (They have to have the same phone and software.) Yes, I can see that Susan is at the Chinese restaurant so I can drop by and join her for lunch.

Why is Bluetooth important? For that matter, what is Bluetooth? Despite the funny name, it is a standardization of wireless connectivity. Any Bluetooth device can talk to any other Bluetooth device. I know that my Bluetooth ear bud will connect with my Bluetooth SmartPhone which will connect with my car Bluetooth system for hands-free operation. Bluetooth is a big step toward the wireless office.

Bluetooth refers to King Harald Bluetooth Gormson (910 – 986 AD). Maybe he had a dark tooth from an injury but the nickname probably came later. He united Denmark and Norway and turned them from paganism to Christianity. The Jelling stones are his monument to his parents and a symbol of the unification. The runes are used in Bluetooth’s logo.

Features Comparison	Blackberry 8703e	PalmOne Treo 700p	Motorola Q	iPhone
Operating System	Blackberry	Palm	Windows Mobile 5	Apple OS X
Street Price	$199	$349 +	$229.99	$499 / $599
Qwerty Keyboard	Yes	Yes	Yes	On Screen
Screen Size	2.1	2.7	2.4	3.5
Camera Option	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Internal Memory	36MB	32MB	64MB	4GB/8GB
Bluetooth	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Web Browser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Continuous Talk Time	N/A	7:44 hours		5:00 hours

Finally, look at the 3rd party applications you need and decide which Smartphone will handle your needs best.

• Camera? (3+ megapixel versions are common now.)
• Documents to Go? (Read/edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint files.) Or use Windows Mobile which already has the software.
• MP3s? (Internal memory capacity and SD cards hold more songs.)
• Video? (Smaller graphics chips and SD cards allow you to capture or play video files.)
• PDF reader?
• Web browsing?
• 3D games?

What’s next? Smartphones that can switch between digital cellular networks and local area Wi-Fi and make the choice for you of the least expensive way to place your call. The technology is available but the debate continues on allowing calls during air flights. I’m certainly voting no on that! 10GB drives are a probability to hold more applications, MP3s, videos, … large files.

One word of caution. Smartphone technology is going to make a lot of changes in the next 12-24 months. When you buy your Smartphone, plan on buying a new and improved version soon.

The Antidote for PowerPoint Poisoning

(Part 1 of 2)

Even discounting the source, we all know that there are a lot of PowerPoint presentations going on: Microsoft says 30 million a day. Our favorite corporate employee, Dilbert, bemoans the high risk of "PowerPoint poisoning" caused by the 95 percent market share PowerPoint has in presentation tools.

So how do you avoid spreading the dread disease with your presentation? In this article, we'll look at the tool itself. It isn't PowerPoint's fault that many presentations today leave us nodding off; it is definitely our problem as presenters. Part 2 will focus on perfecting your personal presentation style.

Absolutely, Positively Never…

• Use a standard PowerPoint (PP) design. At the very least, change the color scheme from the designs that come with the program. If you are serious about improving your PP, visit Web sites that provide new, interesting designs. These include:

• http://www.powerpaints.com/,
• www.presentationpro.com/PowerDESIGNS/Templates&Designs.asp,
• http://www.pixelmill.com/, and
• www.mybackgrounds.com/powerpointtemp.htm.

A Google search for "PowerPoint templates" will also give you plenty of options. Some have a fee; some are free.

• Read from the PP slide. You are the presenter. PP is your backup singer. The information on the slide is to clarify, support and spotlight the information you are vocally giving the audience. Have you ever seen James Taylor walk back to stand beside his backup singer and give her the lead mike?

• Fill the slide. The audience is listening to you. They can't simultaneously read 20 bullet points on a slide or read your personal novella in 10-point type. Large blocks of information the audience needs should be handed out in hard copy so the audience can read the details after your presentation. They should be too busy listening to you to get to the fine print.

• Use animation on every slide. Yes, PP is a visual tool. But if slide after slide has swooshing animations for every bullet and every picture, the tool becomes a hammer pounding the audience into a coma. Animation must have a purpose. There is not a prize for having the highest count of animations of anyone in the industry.

• Use the three-slides-per-page format for your handout. That format with three slides and the little lines on the right side of the page has been used so much that it will cause PP poisoning in half of the audience as soon as you hand it out. Your audience is intelligent enough to know they can take notes on their handout.

Absolutely, Positively Always…

• Build your content first. This is the #1 most critical step and, for some of you who love the "toys" aspect of PP, the most difficult. Yet it is a guaranteed method to build a good PP presentation. Use the Outline View and build your content first. Don't choose a slide layout. Don't choose a design template. Instead:

• Type the main points you want to make in the presentation. Put them in the order where you have the best flow of thought for your case.
• Add in the crucial bullet points you need to emphasize.
• Add in the graphics that support your position.

By focusing on content first, you ensure that your information is taking precedence over the appearance of the information. Keep your priorities straight!

Remember the joke you pulled on the boss? You brought in a beautifully decorated cake. Sugared violets, scalloped trim around the edges, scripted "Happy Birthday" in her favorite color. But when she cut into the cake something was wrong! The decorations were on a piece of foam. That's a PP that has been built design first. It looks good, but it doesn't satisfy anyone.

• Use graphics instead of words whenever possible. You are giving the audience the words. Use graphics to illustrate your point instead of bullet points. PP allows you to create a looped series of photos to demonstrate project progression or installation methods. Videos can also be inserted on a slide and run to back up your information. Scan small segments of forms or diagrams as visuals when you're discussing work flow or paperwork.

• Use the appropriate slide layout. Choose a slide layout that fits your information. Don't add in text boxes unless you have no choice. Using the slide layouts allows you to change and update your presentation much more easily. Change the Slide Master, and all of your slide titles are automatically updated to the new font size and color. Add custom bullets to the Master, and all of the bullets for the entire presentation change instantly.

Using the Slide Master lets you customize the PP to your specific audience. Use the school team colors for the short list interview. Use a state flag as a bullet for your presentation to a state's department of transportation management team.

• Practice! Every artist rehearses, whether he's Tiger Woods or Mick Jagger. You need to practice, too. Even if you wrote the presentation. Even if you've been discussing the subject for half of your life. The practice time will help you coordinate what you're saying with what the audience is seeing. The next slide should be a surprise to the audience, not to you.

During one practice session, try to step back and look at the PP from your audience's point of view. Are you using any unfamiliar words or terms? Are you answering their questions or presenting your solutions? Is the flow of the presentation logical and comfortable for them?

• Create a flexible PP. Today you have an hour to do your presentation. Tomorrow you have 30 minutes. Monday the focus is on Project A. Thursday the focus is on Project D. Build one solid PP that can be used in multiple situations. It's very easy in PP to rearrange slides to change the focus. You can hide slides to trim down to 30 minutes. By taking the time to build one really solid PP, you can accomplish multiple goals. Don't throw together 10 presentations in a big rush and waste all of your precious time. Use one presentation 10 different ways.

• Use the Notes Page format. Every presenter, regardless of experience, needs support. The Notes section of PP can be your best friend. Insert your supporting facts, statistics and examples. Type them in a point size that is easy for you to read during your presentation. Then if someone asks a question that is out of sequence, you can answer it but use the notes to get right back on track. You won't skip that vital point you were about to make. If you have a "senior moment," your notes will catch you. You won't use the same example twice when a different example would have been better. Using notes helps you fine tune your content.

Content is the point of PowerPoint!

The Antidote for PowerPoint Poisoning

(Part 2 of 2)

Welcome to the second of a two-part series about making the most of your presentations, PowerPoint or otherwise. Here are some more tips.

Fill Your Toolbox

Part 1 of this series discussed using PowerPoint to strengthen your presentation. It's a great tool. But there are other presentation tools that you can use if circumstances call for them.

•Something to write on. This includes white boards, blackboards, flip charts or any surface you can write on or draw on to illustrate your message. These are especially helpful if you want to include feedback from members of your audience.

•Post-It flip charts. You write on the pages as you talk or get feedback from the audience, then post the pages on the walls around the room to let you or your audience refer back to points made earlier in the presentation. Since they're made with Post-It adhesive, you don't damage walls (though you may want to double check on expensive wallpapers).

•A projector. Be sure your projector has the capabilities to show your presentation correctly. Will the projector work in a lighted room? Is its resolution high enough to show your photos or graphics that require high resolution? Computer resolution can be higher than projector resolution, so it could affect the view. Projectors work with software programs other than PowerPoint. If I'm giving a presentation on contact management I don't need PowerPoint, but I want the audience to see ACT! and Goldmine. The projector allows me to show my computer screen to a larger audience. Some programs even give me highlighter effects so I can pretend to be John Madden.

•A digital remote with a laser pointer. Using a remote with your projector allows you to move away from the laptop and projector. Walk around the room to use the flip chart pages you've hung up. Stand beside a member of the audience for their feedback. The laser pointer focuses the audience's attention.

•Ovation by SeriousMagic. This software takes your PowerPoint presentation and upgrades the graphics automatically. It also includes a teleprompter and timer to improve your presentation. If you do a lot of presentations, it is $100 well spent.

Be Prepared

•Practice giving your presentation. Will you be standing at a podium? Do you need to walk around the room? How will you advance the slides? Make your practice as "real life" as you can. You can't control every aspect of a presentation, but practicing as accurately as you can will eliminate many nasty surprises.

•Visit the location ahead of time. Find out where the light switches are and if you can close the curtains. How will the room be arranged? Do the attendees have tables for note taking? Can you pass around samples?

•Know your equipment. The price of projectors has dropped so dramatically in the last couple of years that it is probably worth it to buy your own projector if you make several presentations a year. If you borrow equipment, schedule time to get familiar with it well before the presentation. I recently sat in a meeting where they lost 20 minutes trying to connect the laptop to the projector. Do you think the audience had a lot of confidence in their expertise in anything after watching that debacle? Not to mention that they had to drop a full third of their message and regain their composure.

•Organize your notes. Since you aren't reading the words showing on the screen, how are you going to remember what to say? PowerPoint has a Note Page feature that allows you to write out your points in relation to each slide. You can then print the Note Pages. Some projectors even allow you to see the Note Pages while the audience sees the slide only. Be sure there are numbers on your notes to keep them in order. Every speaker has dropped their notes at least once. It's as sure as the sun rising in the east.

•Make sure you can read your notes. Ovation by SeriousMagic includes a teleprompter feature. Be sure the font size is large enough that you can read it standing up. Do you need to wear your glasses? I'll never forget the poor man whose helpful assistant had put his presentation into a three-ring binder for him. Regretfully she chose an 8.5-by-9-inch binder! Trying to read that small print while standing beside the projector was impossible. He probably still has a crick in his neck.

•Film yourself. No, I'm not encouraging narcissism, I'm giving you one of the most powerful tools you can use to improve your presentation. You will learn fascinating things about yourself, such as how often you say "um" or repeat yourself. You might not realize that your knee bounces when you really get into your subject, or that those certain earrings flop around your face when you talk!

•Dress professionally but comfortably. Try out the new outfit you bought. You might love what you see—or be embarrassed. If something about the outfit doesn't work, you can correct it. And you can certainly choose different jewelry. Speaking of a new outfit, sometimes new clothes are not a good idea. It's harder to appear confident if you just popped the button on your slacks or the new shoes are pinching your toes to distraction. Debut that new look in an easier situation.

•Be careful what you eat and drink before your presentation. Yes, it's probably safer to skip the taco so it doesn't end up on your suit. But just as important, beware of foods that can result in hiccups or belches. Choose beverages that moisten your throat without causing it to film so you aren't coughing or swallowing 10 times a minute. Carry throat lozenges to prevent coughing or losing volume. Speaking to an audience is tough on your voice.

•Know your audience! My PowerPoint presentation is going to be different for an audience of architects versus an audience of manufacturers' reps. It will certainly be different if the audience is over 60 or under 15. If you have a wide range, you can adjust the presentation to include everyone at some point—but only if you know who is listening.

One of the best features of PowerPoint is that it is so easy to adapt a presentation to fit multiple audiences. Don't show irrelevant slides; hide them. Rearrange the slides to tailor the presentation to a new audience. One presentation can become an infinite number of presentations if you built a solid presentation to start with.

Remember that your presentation must be written from the audience's point of view. The point is what they want to know or need to know, not what you want to tell them. Tell the audience why they want to listen to you. Grab their attention by explaining what's in it for them right at the beginning.

•Take the circumstances into account. If you're making a presentation at 1 p.m. to an audience that just came back from lunch after a four-hour morning session of PowerPoint presentations, don't use PowerPoint! Regardless of the value of your presentation or your skill in front of an audience, they are going to be physically and mentally worn down. Change your presentation to help them stay involved. Use other tools. Are they eating while you're talking? Then give them handouts with the details you want them to have. Even rubber chicken will distract them from the fine points.

Start Professionally and Finish Strongly

•Don't apologize. Never start your presentation with an apology. If you must apologize for something (starting late, a scratchy throat, a spot on your shirt), save it for the end. The audience will figure out on its own that your voice is not at its best. At the end you can thank them for their patience with your scratchy throat instead of starting off with a negative about yourself.

•Prepare an introduction. Write out your introduction even if it is as simple as "Hi, I'm Bob Smith, managing partner with ABC Company." The person introducing you may be nervous. Help them get your name right! Include details in the intro that tell the audience why they're listening to you. For example, "Bob Smith with ABC Company has been an architect for 23 years and has won 47 design awards."

•Lose the jokes. Jokes aren't required if you aren't a stand-up comedian. If you aren't positive that the joke will be a big hit, don't tell it. Many of us can't tell a joke well, especially if we're nervous in front of a crowd. Sometimes the joke we like offends someone else. It's OK in your presentation to state a different opinion, but giving a different opinion as a joke can often backfire. However, featuring anecdotes or telling a story to illustrate your point helps the audience remember your message.

•Enlist third-party credibility. Use links to Web sites, portions of other people's presentations, graphics, videos and so forth to increase your credibility. I'll listen if you tell me the typical cost per square foot for a school is $X, but you'll get more credibility if you show me a scan of a report from a national education publication.

•Summarize your key points for the audience to help them tie all of the bits and pieces together. Restate the most important concept or idea you want them to walk away with. Emphasize again what's in it for them.

•Include contact information in case anyone has follow-up questions. Someone may be too shy to ask their question during the presentation or they may be so impressed with your knowledge that they want to schedule you for another audience.

•Thank your audience! Out of the 30 million presentations given today, they took the time to listen to you. Let them know you appreciate their time.

Blogging: The Next Big Thing

I remember telling my boss that we had to get a fax machine to send information to our customers. Now fax machines seem almost passé. Then I was convincing clients that they needed a Web site, even if it didn't "sell" anything. I also told them that they needed to use e-mail to communicate faster and better.

Blogging is the next big thing. You need to get onboard—and soon—if you are going to be on the leading edge rather than tagging along at the end of the technology parade.

Blogging has been compared to Gutenberg's printing press or the creation of the Internet in its ability to change our world. BusinessWeek warns that "you cannot afford to close your eyes to [blogs], because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself."

Starting in the late 1990s as a few online diaries, blogs (short for "Web logs") have been around for a while. Much of the content is trash. Who really cares to delve into teenage angst or listen to rabid political diatribes?

Three events are credited with elevating blogs to a higher level of relevance. After 9/11, blogging became a powerful means of communicating. Text messages from people making their way home from Ground Zero. Families looking for loved ones. Everyman sharing his pain. Suddenly, blogs weren't an individual's story, they were our story. The second event certainly seemed less dramatic. Trent Lott made a speech at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party in December 2002. The major news agencies had no comment. But bloggers picked up on his statements, which seemed to support and even long for the good old days of Thurmond's segregationist stands. The links flew from blog to blog for days while the mainstream press ignored it. Finally, blogs forced the hand of the mainstream press, who broke the story, and it eventually cost Lott his job as senate majority leader. Finally, while Vietnam was the first war to be televised, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are the first to be blogged. Blogs take us on patrol with Marines and let us feel the fear and the pride of our soldiers.

What's in It for You?

Okay, so blogs are here to stay. What's in it for me as a design professional? One statistic in a 2004 BusinessWeek article states that only 27 percent of Americans read blogs. Why should you do something reaching only a relatively small group?

Web sites are static pieces of information. Even if you update your site daily, you're pushing information out to your visitors. Blogs create an interactive environment. You can discuss ideas. You can educate laymen. In other words, you can build a relationship. Instead of being one of the billions of Web sites fighting for attention, you become a person. People do business with people. The more real you become to your clients, the more likely they are to be happy clients and repeat clients. Greg Ruggiero of the Immediast Underground is quoted as saying, "Media is a corporate possession… You cannot participate in the media. Bringing that into the foreground is the first step. The second step is to define the difference between public and audience. An audience is passive; a public is participatory. We need a definition of media that is public in its orientation."

Whether it's the latest presidential debate, American Idol castoff or shopping recommendations for parents-to-be, participation gets people excited and involved. If you are in the design business, people involved in your blog suddenly become part of the design process. Having their opinions heard makes the building theirs. Now they are your partners as well as your clients.

Brent Spore, creative director of The Creation Shop, a Phoenix, Arizona social media firm, says, "You have to be passionate about blogging to be successful at blogging." What is it that you love about architecture? Its history? The fusion of art and science? Sustainable building? Whatever topic is your passion should be where you begin your blog.

Blogs vs. Web Sites and E-mail

Few of us have the time or the interest to become programmers to build or maintain our own Web sites. While there is software available to help the average person build Web sites, it is still far from perfect. I recently tried to use a program to make the Construction Specifications Institute Phoenix chapter's Web site all volunteer. While the volunteers were all willing computer users, the software was too difficult to learn and retain. Each month saw us starting at step one yet again. I've been maintaining the site on my own for the last few months and still struggle with the software.

Blogging software, on the other hand, is much simpler to use. The two leading versions are free, so they have to be good to get people to come back. While you may want professional assistance to start your blog and tie it into your existing Web site, you are perfectly capable of keeping the momentum going.

Blog posts also can be timed for publication. I may write a week's worth of entries on Sunday afternoon, but they will show up individually each day for the next week. To do that on a Web site requires coordination (and cooperation) from my Web site programmer. I have to be on time. He has to be on time. To post the April newsletter on a client's Web site took five days and at least that many e-mails. I made the request in what I thought were clear terms. But the programmer didn't understand it. He made a new menu item, thus messing up the site navigation. Next he posted the new entry at the bottom of the list, not the top. Then he forgot to include the date with the newsletter title. With a blog, I could have made the post in one-quarter of the time.

Blogs started out as text entries, but they have evolved into a wonderful show-and-tell of words, videos, links and graphics. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, what is its value when accompanied by words and links?

Blogs are immediate. If a company can track opinions from blogs, it can get a heat map of what a growing number of prospects is thinking about. Blogs are generally public. The information is there to be mined. E-mails (with a few notable exceptions) are private. No one can measure their attitudes. Jeff Weiner, Yahoo's senior vice president, commented, "Never in the history of market research has there been a tool like this."

Blogs work with and improve your existing Web site. Having a blog on your Web site can increase your traffic, thus making the Web site a better investment. The increase in visitors is always good, but blogs bring two additional tools, trackbacks and pingbacks (which I will discuss in depth in the next issue). Both link comments on blogs to other blogs and Web sites. Your audience is broadened. The increase in traffic and the links to other sites increase your presence on the Internet and in search-engine results.

Project Blogs

Let's consider some of the practical uses of creating a blog for a project.

• You can limit access to a blog page with passwords.
• The client can access the blog at their convenience—not just during business hours, or not just when you are available to answer the phone.
• Haven't decided on the cabinetry for a lab classroom? Include links to manufacturers' Web sites for their photos and specs. Let the teachers who will be using the lab comment on what they need. Involve maintenance by getting their input.
• Present a problem/challenge. Discuss with the end users possible solutions. Lead to a consensus result.

Employee Blogs

Blogs can also serve an internal function:

• Calendars can share personal events, such as birthdays or anniversaries. Ever met someone who didn't like to hear "Happy Birthday"?
• Post menus for local eateries.
• Publish company policies and invite honest discussion. (You do have the ability to approve comments before they are published, just in case someone gets carried away.)
• Let everyone participate in planning the next company picnic to help it become a family event instead of a corporate obligation.

Should you Upgrade to Microsoft Vista?

When this issue's article was first discussed several months ago, we didn't realize it would be quite so timely. We thought an article on Microsoft's new operating system (OS), Vista, would be valuable as new computers are being shipped with the new software.

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