Often organizations make a mistake in thinking that all they have to do to create a web-based presentation is to create a link to a PDF file.  If budget is tight and something needs to be done immediately, this can work.  But if an organization wants to truly persuade an audience, they need to do better than that.

Recently we had the opportunity to work with the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder to turn a static PDF into something that truly engages soldiers and their families.  The original PDF was designed as a printed pamphlet and it served that purpose well: rich in content, well laid out, and full of pictures.  But NCPTSD knew that a good design for print does not translate into a good design for the web, and they wanted something that their viewers would watch and be inspired by.

We created “Returning from the War Zone: A Guide for Families,” an on-line presentation that uses a simple user interface, transparent navigation, friendly narration, colorful graphics, and video stories that put a face on the serious issue of posttraumatic stress disorder.  Though the content was derived from the PDF version, we revised it dramatically to work in an on-line environment, chunking the information, rewriting it for narration, and providing much of the information through video storytelling.  Check out the finished product and notice how much more compelling this is than a static PDF.

Do you know what your organization’s online brand is? Potential and current employees, clients, and partners, as well as competitors have most likely all searched for your organization online. Your online brand is established via your own website of course, but it’s more than that—it’s everything that anyone else says about your organization elsewhere on the web as well.

So what are people saying about you? The simplest way to find out is to do an online search. A number of sites allow individuals to review a variety of organizations across industries, such as these:

• Zoominfo.com (offers  comprehensive information on both organizations and key personnel)
• Glassdoor.com (offers employee reviews of organizations’ compensation and work environments)
• Yelp.com (rates organizations based on customer reviews)

Take a look, because no matter how wonderful your own website is, if others are painting a very different picture of your organization, you need to know, and if it’s negative, do what you can to mitigate that.

In follow up posts I’ll talk about how to analyze these search results and determine what if anything, you should do to respond to negative comments or reviews.

Any job seeker who spends a day at a recruiting fair meeting with numerous prospective employers will tell you that before long, all of the agencies and organizations begin to look and sound the same.  Job seekers are bombarded with recruiting material, and they often leave recruiting fairs with folders full of information and bags full of gimmicky knickknacks.  When they get home and dump that pile of information out on their kitchen table and begin to examine it, an organization has only about 30 seconds to “sink the hooks in” and get them interested. How can you ensure that your organization’s recruiting media stands out as the “diamond in the rough”?

When USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) came to Mind & Media looking for a clean, easy-to-use recruiting tool to attract top-level talent, we knew that we’d need to hook the audience in that critical first 30 seconds. So we developed the ERS recruiting tool with a brief introductory “teaser” video followed by three short video segments hitting the Who, What, Where, When, and Why elements that every job seeker needs to know before pursuing an opportunity.

The teaser video includes powerful snippets from the main feature videos. These brief vignettes of our interviews with ERS employees illustrate to our audience that ERS employees love where they live, that they enjoy their work, and that they are empowered to continue their personal research in order to make a global difference. By giving our audience a taste of the main messages in an appetizing way, we are encouraging them to watch the short video features that present the content in an easy-to-digest manner.

This concise and personal look at ERS is inviting, the content is simple to navigate, and it is as elementary to use as putting the CD into any personal computer. Take a look and see for yourself!

I’ll say it again: it’s all about the audience.  Your message, the medium you choose and the distribution mechanism you select is all dictated by the audience you want to reach. With the multitude of choices that make up our ever-widening media landscape, choosing the right avenue by which to reach your audience is extremely important and can make or break your campaign.

So where are these splintered audiences and how can you best reach them? There are entire books that have been written about this subject and I only have a few paragraphs, so I’ll concentrate on one demographic parameter alone: age. In future posts I’ll deal with others such as gender, income level and race.

The biggest general observation that can be made about media consumption is that online technologies are increasingly attracting all age groups, especially the younger demos, while traditional media like newspapers, magazines, radio and television continue to skew older.

Newspapers: Newspaper readership has been in a steady decline over the past decade, with only two in five reporting that they obtain their news via traditional newspaper brands on a daily basis (whether print or online). 60% of those 55+ reported reading a newspaper on a daily basis while “less than one quarter of those aged 18-34 (23%) say they read a newspaper almost every day while 17% in this age group say they never read a daily newspaper.”

Magazines: The average age of magazine readers is now 45 at the same time that ad pages continue their downward trend.

Radio (AM/FM): Listenership is declining in the 12-17 age demo, while 86% of those above the age of seventeen still listen to radio.

Television: Although the median age is now 51, two years older than the coveted 18-49 demo, television is still the broadcast medium of choice for reaching a mass audience. However, the numbers speak volumes about the viewership habits of the newer generations. The 55+ age group spent approximately 60% more time watching television than the 18-24 demo.

Internet Video: The 18-24 age group spends the most time watching video online, three times as much as those aged 65+ and almost twice as much as those in the 45-54 age group.

Internet Radio: According to the NPD Group, more than half of teens (52 percent) listened to online radio in 2008, compared to just 34 percent in 2007 and in a study conducted by Big Research, it’s clear that the percentage of users listening to radio online decreases as age increases, with almost three times as many listeners in the 18-24 age group as there are in the 55+ age group.

Instant Messaging & Text Messaging: There are almost twice as many users of instant messaging in the 18-24 age group as there are in the over 55 age group. And from the same chart you can see that use of text messaging is overwhelmingly a youth activity.

Blogs: Those aged 18-24 comprise the largest group reading blogs and compared to those 55 and over, there are almost three times as many of them.

Social Networks: This is where things get fascinating, especially as it concerns the largest social network out there, Facebook. In an interesting analysis by Peter Corbett, head of iStrategyLabs, he reports that “Facebook’s 35-54 year old demographic segment not only continued to grow the fastest, but it accelerated to a 276.4% growth rate over the past six months. That demo is DOUBLING roughly every two months.” Additionally, the second fastest growing age group on Facebook is the 55+ group. In another, more comprehensive analysis on the Royal Pingdom Blog, it’s clear that those in the 25-54 age group comprise the bulk of social network users.

My next post will be about gender differences in the usage of these media.

Image courtesy: http://www.ny3d.org/2008/03/

If you are a government or public agency and want to know how to use Twitter the right way, look no further than AlexandriaVAGov.  This was a well-performing account prior to Snowpocalypse 2010, dishing out helpful information to the residents of the City of Alexandria, Virginia.  However during the snowmageddeon, its value eclipsed that of the last snow shovel in Home Depot.

Throughout the snowtorious snowstorm my family had many concerns: What number do we call to report a power outage? AlexanderVAGov posted those numbers.  What if power isn’t restored and the house gets too cold?  They posted the addresses of shelters and warming centers. From school closings to cancelled city services to the latest snowfall predictions, AlexandriaVAGov on Twitter was there for us, keeping us informed while everyone else lost their minds.

When the snow stopped and it was time to go back to work, they posted a link to a Google Maps mash-up that showed what roads were priorities for the plows and what the expected driving conditions were.  This was very helpful in planning a safe route.

Yes, Twitter is full of nonsense and, yes, Fake[Insert Celebrity] is a lot more entertaining than AlexandriaVaGov. However when you’re snowed in or in a similar emergency, your local government is (or should be) there for you.  AlexandraVAGov understands this.  I hope your local government does, too.

Image courtesy: http://twitter.com/alexandriavagov

As part of our work helping USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) re-brand itself to attract top-notch professionals, Mind & Media conducted a focused research and analysis effort resulting in a recruitment branding report. The report included:

A general review of industry best practices in recruiting,

• An overview of competing agencies’ recruiting websites,
• An analysis of the current ERS recruitment approach,
• Recommended changes to enhance the ERS recruitment program, and
• The recommended content and approach for a conference take-away tool.

I was so glad we were able to take this step for ERS before developing the recruiting tool for them. Often government agencies go to contractors just wanting something made up quickly to meet an immediate need. Without the time spent determining the audience’s needs, organization’s value proposition, and key messages, a recruiting product is unlikely to succeed.

The report we created for ERS led to development of an excellent recruiting tool (see it here http://dev.mindandmedia.com/usda/tool/start_here.html). But the report will also guide development of other recruiting and marketing efforts at ERS, as well as help internal stakeholders better understand the key benefits of working at ERS and how to convey them to prospects.

The research and analysis effort was not lengthy, but the impact was dramatic. Just another example of how spending some “mind” time up front can make the “media” part at the end so much more effective.

Our clients often believe they’ve communicated vital recruiting messages, yet a potential hire must dig very deep into busy websites or fragmented recruiting materials to understand why an agency is a stellar career choice.

Recently we had the opportunity to help USDA/ERS develop a recruiting tool to attract top-level professionals.  Though USDA was well ahead of the pack in knowing what set them apart from the competition, they also knew that their message was not getting the exposure it deserved.   And now more than ever, USDA knows it has to put out an inspiring recruiting message so they have the right talent to tackle many pressing issues, e.g. climate change, rural economic well-being, and international food safety and security.

As a starting point for a broader campaign, USDA/ERS tasked Mind & Media to develop a recruiting tool to give out at their national conference.  The tool they had used in the past was a series of fragmented files on a flash drive.  While the information contained on the tool was excellent, it was difficult to use and required a concerted effort on the part of the applicant to glean any value from it.

We recrafted the information to showcase the key recruiting messages and eliminate the clutter that muddled the messages.  We recrafted the tool so that it was transparent and very easy to use, whether being presented on CD-ROM or on the web. We also maximized the use of video to give the agency a human face. Check out what we created:  http://dev.mindandmedia.com/usda/tool/start_here.html.   Wouldn’t you want to be part of the USDA/ERS team?

It’s a bit of a chicken and egg question but some of our blog posts in the past have hinted at the fact that Web 2.0 brings with it not only a change in technology but also a profound change in culture, particularly in the ways that Web 2.0 users are used to doing things.

To buttress this point, I came across an interesting blog post on the confluence of technology, culture and giving and it’s worth bringing it to your attention.  In his post, Peter Dunn points out that the Red Cross has found the right technology (phone texting), for the right purpose (fast fundraising), aimed at the right generation (Gen Y, a group of users who “average 740 texts per month”).

As he points out:

“…often times, charities aren’t meeting the “needs” of those it asks from. No one writes checks, and even online giving isn’t doing the job for Gen Y. The fast-paced, multi-tasking nature of Gen Y often is a hindrance when it comes to charitable giving.

The Red Cross figured it out (or at least I’m giving it credit for figuring it out). It is allowing mobile phone users to simply text the word “Haiti” to 90999. By doing this, it has cracked the code to Gen Y giving.”

I don’t know about the accuracy of the “no one writes checks” statement or whether Gen Y members feel that it’s a hindrance to give online or not but I strongly agree with the underlying meaning of the statement and the overall post.  Gen Y, or more accurately, Web 2.0 users, are used to doing things differently.  Driven by their use of technology first, they expect to be able to get things done online via their computers or increasingly, via their mobile devices.  They want to do things fast, with a minimum of steps and they are used to doing several things at once, with various devices.

I would add that what Web 2.0 has enabled in this case – giving users the ability to help via their cell phones by making a charitable contribution via texting – is not the end of the story in Haiti—or in this case, the beginning.  Most of the reports of the tragedy first surfaced via Twitter and social networks such as Facebook, as most other forms of communication in the country were wiped out in the earthquake.  As reported by James Morgan of BBC News, these social networks were then used very effectively to raise record sums in record time by non-profits helping in Haiti.

It is the confluence of users, their behaviors (and expectations) plus the technology that is giving rise to a completely new way of doing things…the Web 2.0 way.

In the fourth of four social media webinars I’ve been following being given by Matrix Group International, I learned some great tips for “Measuring the Return on Investment of Social Media for Business.” CEO Joanna Pineda and her staff reviewed common ways of measuring ROI on traditional marketing campaigns, but noted that 84% of programs that use social media don’t measure ROI (per Mzinga and Babson Executive Education, August 2009).  There ARE ways to set goals for social media campaigns to determine ROI. The webinar had some great tips regarding what one can track and how.

Quantitative numbers you can track include traffic to your website as well as number of:

Mentions of your organization across the Web (web, blogs, Facebook, Twitter)

• @ mentions and RT (retweets) on Twitter
• Facebook and Twitter followers
• Comments on your blog
• Comments from your organization’s members or feedback from customers
• Subscribers to your RSS feed
• Opt-in e-mail addresses

You can also track hard returns like direct sales, donations, new members, and event registrations. Regarding the how, the presenters were big on Google Analytics, as well as usage reports, marketing codes, URL tracking, and alerts (Google, Twitter, Facebook, RTs and @mentions, blog mentions). The webinar ended with several illuminating case studies and Q&A. See the Matrix Group International, Inc. website to learn about upcoming webinars and events.

Image courtesy: vechtrack.com

Recently Comcast and Universal announced plans to merge their two houses.  Every time I hear about two large communications corporations merging I remember what my Communication 101 professor said about such things, “Nothing good can come of this.”

What’s so bad about it? Consider that the entertainment behemoth would control the content and the means to distribute that content. In other words, they control the shows and how those shows get to your television.  Think such a thing couldn’t happen? It already has.  This year if you wanted to see the show Friday Night Lights, you needed a DirectTV subscription. If you didn’t have one, well maybe you can buy the DVD in 2010.

Should this merger go through, I worry for the growing trend of on-demand over-the-internet providers like Hulu.  They answered a decades-old plea from media consumers—an a la carte cable system.  Only the pluck and grit of a start-up can do that.  However, based on recent examples of large corporate mergers, Comcast-Universal may not even get the chance to execute anything. Even if they pass regulation they have a steep hill to climb—one that is littered with the wrecks of AOL-Time Warner and Vivendi-Universal.  So watch this development with a skeptical eye.

Photo Courtesy: http://gabesguide.com/