January 20, 2012
The Art of Listening
Have you ever noticed how many people are using social media these days? Everyone from your best friend to your mom is posting on Twitter, Facebook and other online communities. What would you do if I now told you that someone was listening to what’s being said? All the conversation online, ranging from opinion sharing to insightful product reviews to emotional support makes social media the largest focus groups and companies are beginning to listen.
According to SocialMediabiz.com, the companies that will succeed in the current market place, “will be social businesses, committed to forging deep and meaningful relationships with their customer”. Organizations that hope to connect with their consumers, need to be dedicated to listening what they have to say. Online monitoring or “listening” is almost a necessity for any organization. Organizations large and small have invested serious dollars to putting their ear to the metaphorical ground to inform their decisions relating to “product development, customer support, public outreach, lead generation, market research and campaign measurement.”
Most conversation online are unsolicited, that’s what makes it so pure and valuable. For instance, a pharmaceutical company wants to hear how patients talk about their drugs and an agency wants to know what aspect of their commercial is annoying. Companies also “listen in” to put out threatening fires and reach out extraordinary customers.
In terms of executing a listening strategy, there are tons of social media monitoring vendors, each designed to fit the varying needs in the market place. To get an understanding of what providers our out there, check out “The Forrester Wave”, a 2010 evaluation of the top listening platforms in the market.
Social media monitoring is a practice that is here to stay, so why don’t you stop and listen…you may be surprised what you hear.
Filed under: Communications, Social Media
January 11, 2012
Ready to go mo?
No, that isn’t an invitation to join the Mo Rocca fan club. It’s a rallying cry from Google to help get brands and organizations to mobilize (as in enable to behave nicely in mobile browsers) their web sites, and to do it now.
Sure, the fine folks at Google have an obvious self-interest in mobile, but that doesn’t change the fact that their site www.HowToGoMo.com is an excellent little starting place for the mo-curious (I’ll refrain from postulating on why the site doesn’t fully work in FireFox, Chrome’s biggest rival, but it’s interesting to note).
First and foremost, is making clear the distinction between simply being able to access a site on a mobile device, and a site that is designed to cater to the mobile experience, which is ruled by screen size and bandwidth.
Next, is appreciating the arguments for why going mobile has shifted from a nice-to-have to a must-have. Case in point: “By 2012, more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to get online.”
HowToGoMo also features a fun and useful tool – its GoMoMeter – to provide a sneak peak of how a given site looks on a smart phone, and to provide any top-line recommendations for how it could be improved for mobile browsing (hooray! The recently launched m.theshelterproject.org scores a perfect 4 out of 4!).
Recommendations are rooted in Google’s 10 Mobile Best Practices – a set of guidelines that is certainly in line with, and as good as any I’ve seen out there. To my eyes, there’s a sense of priority in how their best practices are ordered, so check out the top 5 below, and you’ll be off to a good start in understanding the nuances of what makes for a good mobile site.
Top 5 Mobile Best Practices from Google
- Keep it Quick: fast load time and copy/content that can be scanned quickly
- Simplify Navigation: a clear hierarchy, vertical only, a prominently available search box for complex sites
- Thumb-friendly: users lack the finer control of a mouse or stylus
- Design for visibility: use sufficient color contrast and plenty of negative space
- Make it accessible: site should work across all mobile devices and handset orientations. Avoid Flash – it doesn’t work on all devices.
Google’s full set of best practices is available as a handy-dandy PDF you can save and print as a reference.
December 22, 2011
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