On the road getting work done with portable wifi

Working from the road can be a lot of fun. Mental breaks mean looking out the window, not (just) coffee. After a few road trips, I’m ready to share my must-haves for on-the-go productivity.

1. Laptop: This one is pretty obvious. There are a ton of debates on the “best laptop for travel,” but it’s really a matter of opinion. Weight hasn’t been an issue on my road trips.
2. Mobile phone: You don’t really need a fancy phone, but mobile email is a must. Keep your signature “Sent from my mobile device” free and you’re all set. You shouldn’t have to advertise for your phone and it’s not really relevant information. I’m not a fan of the phone I currently have, so I’m not recommending it. I’m interested in the new Evo (on Sprint), but have been happy with Verizon so am keeping an eye on the Droid X (which has gotten great preliminary reviews on battery life).
3. Power inverter: Depending on the length of your trip and your battery capacity, you may need a power converter. Because any real road trip outlasts my laptop battery I went with the Black and Decker 200 Watt Power Inverter. On a previous trip I had a 100 watt inverter with no problems; unfortunately I had forgotten it and the store we stopped in only had the heavy duty stuff in stock.
   Head’s up: I’ve heard of one horror story of an inverter surging someone’s laptop, but this was apparently when it was overloaded. We only plugged in two things at a time: the laptop and a phone charger.
4. Wifi: Many mobile providers are providing this nerdy gem. Because I already had Verizon for my mobile service, I went with the Verizon MiFi 2200. The pro of this one over others was it’s capacity for up to 5 computers at once, which is nice as I wasn’t the only one wanting to use it at times. The cons are speed and accessibility. We’re talking DSL speeds. That’s okay for now, I guess; it gets the job done. Accessibility is the same as my mobile phone; this was just fine until I found myself in the back woods of Alabama. (Luckily, a library was close!)
5. DimDim: DimDim is a new collaboration tool I recently came across as an alternative to Go To Meeting. It’s browser-based and free. I was sold at this point. There are also a few additional paid features I don’t think Go To Meeting has, such as reporting. Because I’m really new to it I don’t have a ton of feedback just yet, but it’s already a must-have. Give it a try if you’re in the market; it doesn’t require a credit card to try it and the basic options are free anyway.
6. Skype: Skype is the only thing I’m currently using for video chat. I like keeping it on screen while I’m reviewing a document with someone, particularly thanks to it’s quick screen sharing capabilities. That and, you know, it’s fun to show your fellow Skyper where in the world you are that day.
7. Great bag: I usually use a backpack to carry around my “office” for a few reasons: It has organized pockets, is kind of fun, and is comfy while riding a bike (which is my favorite way to discover a new downtown area!).

From the Eunice Kelly Worthington Library

BONUS TIPS:

• Rockstar travel partner: Getting all of this done in the car would be impossible without the safe driving of a rockstar travel partner. This person not only has to deal with phone/Skype/Dim Dim calls, but the actual driving as well. Hint: Give that person unlimited controls of the radio. He or she deserves it (that is, when you’re not on a call).
• Keep a schedule: Working on the road can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a distraction. I quickly learned to set a work schedule–and communicate this work schedule–depending on where I was going. My schedule was dictated by a few different things: client and co-worker expectations, optimal workspace availability, and (of course) what was planned for the trip. Most people I worked with had no idea I wasn’t in Michigan.
• Check out libraries: I often found myself opting to work in libraries, when possible. It’s been pretty awesome seeing the different libraries around the country. Some of them are having major issues with funding and cutting hours as result. Some have never had a lot of funding to begin with and found their own solutions. From libraries with multiple floors and state of the art facilities to libraries built from converted double wide trailers and emptied out attics, touring and using these facilities has taught me a lot about the communities I have visited and the way the come together.

What are your tips for on-to-go productivity? Where have you visited?

Whether coming from HIPPA or Joe Blow, a law suit is always a headache. You can avoid these issues by following a few rules:

1. Start with strategy. Organizing your efforts will make all of the difference. While you should have a method for listening for your brand across the web, focusing efforts on social media websites that are most relevant to your brand’s community will reap the greatest benefits. Outline where boundaries lie.
2. Choose your team wisely. Interns are great for teaching, not for de-facto project management. Avoid traditional PR pros, as they may stifle the conversational-feel, but keep them close by. Those responsible for conversations on behalf of your brand need to be people you would put on your sales floor, manage your press conference, and “live” the brand. These critical thinkers need to understand the boundaries of the industry and of the company. This generally discludes those who use stuffy press releases, RSS feeds, or overly technical jargon to communicate. Remember: Social media is akin to a conference call, not a megaphone.
3. Consider what you CAN share. Consider your everyday offline conversations with potential clients. What do you discuss? How do you engage them? Is it always all-business?
4. Start with which resources you CAN provide. Your business is successful because you provide things your consumers need. This makes you the expert. Take a look around the office for trade publications and books. These topics influence your business for a reason. Check out the content within them and share it.
5. Understand what makes your brand human. Chances are your consumers don’t have particularly fuzzy feelings your brand’s legal team. In fact, those guys have probably never crossed your consumers’ minds. Most of the conversations in social media are topical and resourceful.

CASE STUDY: Hospital system & HIPAA

A hospital system I’ve worked with had the same concern:

How do we honor patient privacy (and HIPAA) while connecting with the social web community?

Let’s consult the rules:

1. Start with strategy.
   We plugged in a few tools to listen for relevant keywords. We identified what types of hospital information we could not go into detail about. For example: No discussing patient-specific care. No mentioning doctors by name without prior consent. No providing specific medical advice.
2. Choose your team wisely.
   This particular hospital system had a great network of hospital support staff ready to jump in. While a member of the marketing team managed most of the day-to-day engagement, doctors, nurses, and pharmacists took a few hours each month to help out. With the marketing team member guiding things, getting “buy in” from other team members was a breeze.
3. Start with what you CAN share.
   Just as the hospital had receptionists on each floor the marketing team member could guide the social community around their website and direct to external resources (see number 4). They could talk about and share images from company picnics, published (and exciting!) research milestones, and the latest charity.
4. Consider what resources you CAN provide.
   Just like major health magazines–and even the government–providing topical health information was very much on the table. For this particular type of information a disclaimer was always required. We chose condition-specific advice (“Cooking for New Diabetics: The sugar exchange”) and general healthy living topics (“Family Health: Exercises every age will love”).
   
5. Understand what makes your brand human.
   We took a look at how some members of the community were already engaging with each other. The hospital system was encouraged by budding condition-specific communities such as My Cancer Place and KnowCancer. While they avoided joining communities like this, it was clear the community was actively discussing their experiences online.
   Listening is an incredible tool for building trust. So we took a look at what causes a community to trust a hospital system. It was clear: The trust fell in the hands of the human element–the staff. Consumers trust doctors beyond their credentials. Consumers trust them because they feel doctors understand their human-needs–and their bodies.

The result was an engaged hospital system. They knew the community unlike many businesses within it. Opening up to the social web community allowed this client even greater understanding and way to connect and share resources in an unprecedented manor. They were able to provide healthy living tips without the exorbitant costs of printing. They were able to follow up on consumer concerns because they were listening. They were able to further the communities’ trust because they participated.

YOUR TURN: What red tape has your company run into? How can these tips change your approach to the social web?

Business websites can hold similar potential, when used correctly. “Used correctly” means regarding a business website with the similar time, strategy and consideration as you might a brick-and-mortar.

How we determined investments: The Research

There are many critical pieces of data I examine before making recommendations on a project. Here are a few examples:

• Current and historical website performance
• Multiple offline business considerations (such as new markets, fulfillment constraints and benefits, etc)
• Traffic origins
• Search demand
• Market opportunity
• Competition
• Conversion rates

Once a complete audit is finished, recommendations on moving forward can be made. Recommendations detail what it takes to achieve detailed performance goals and return on investment projections.

Returns on Investment: The Results

Then the project kicks off. I love logging into Google Analytics and seeing those green arrows. They indicate results; namely, gangbuster traffic. Looking further into the analytics revealed increasing conversion rates (read: SALES), a bounce rate that surpassed my original goals, and diversified traffic streams.

How we got here: The Tools Using carefully evaluated data, strategies were created to best capitalize on opportunity for sustained  growth. Some of the investment tactics we used:

• Used social media to share educational, entertaining content (Site traffic up by over 600 visits/day!)
• Established relevant SEO with content marketing (Ranked and linked for keywords that convert traffic)
• Made both major and minor user experience (website design and layout) updates (Made it easy for the user to convert)
• Stabilized infrastructure (Ensuring increased website performance, as well as improved search engine ranking)
• Used Google Adwords to drive traffic throughout updates for “quick wins” (Keep cash flow moving in during construction)

And this is only the beginning!

Obvious disclaimer: All projects are unique, so don’t automatically anticipate the same results I’ve had in this instance for your own. As I’ve said, it takes a calculated projections to completely understand what an eCommerce (or business) website is capable of–and not capable of.

I invite you to share your stories in the comments. What has worked best for you?

Have you ever noticed extra advertising on the products you buy? A GAP label on a t-shirt. A movie promotion on a coke can. A movie-themed toy in a McDonald’s kid’s meal. What has made these products so strong that they are now able to cross promote sometimes completely unrelated products?

There are a few components in creating a brand that transcend off-and-online realms, so keep that in mind if you’re working on an offline campaign as well.

1. Be consistent. The web is full of properties to engage markets upon; each has its own rules, trends, and unique qualities. This provides a perfect storm for inconsistent branding. Have a clear vision of how you will communicate branding messages and, if on social media, how you will transform a branding message into engagement or conversation. Determine how the brand “voice” will sound and only change that voice to meet the norm for the property.
2. Cross-link engagement properties. If you’re on Facebook, share your Twitter account. If you’re on LinkedIn, share your Skype. If you’re on BusinessExchange, share your blog. (Funny how I did that, no?) It gives users a way to learn more, connect more solidly, and/or chose how they want to engage with your business. As a bonus, it also helps you build link popularity for better search engine visibility.
   The rest of the tips after the jump…
   
3. Reserve usernames. Your username for posting or sharing should be (surprise, surprise) consistent. Use the name your market already knows you by (ie: Don’t change “McDonalds” to “Best Burgers” or “McBurgerLover”). You’ll only create more for your market to remember, as well as a recognition curve for user engagement.
4. Treat avatars as secondary logos. Just because it’s a small graphic, doesn’t mean it doesn’t make a big impact. It does. The Huffington Post has quite a long name–not something easy to read in an 150×150 pixel box. Instead they used the same color scheme but created a clean, simple, symbolic piece that their existing market could pair with their messages.


Huffington Post logo

transformed into this:



HuffingtonPost avatar

5. Keep content moving. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds are a beautiful thing. They allow businesses to (almost) effortlessly share content throughout the web. If you’re doing it right, your business is creating content on a regular basis. Keep the content moving beyond just your company’s website through things like content market and social media sharing.

Please share your own tips and what you’ve done to reinforce a solid online brand in the comments!

Side note: The photo of the Coke Zero can is from a flight this week. Have you noticed the insane amount of cross-promotions there are on airplanes these days? It’s a way of cutting costs–and I don’t mind that a bit. If you’re interested in a great example of this, check out this short (60 second) video blog from last year:

Refresh Detroit held a Social Media Panel Discussion on January 21, 2009 that I was lucky enough to be part of. It was the first time I had been part of a panel discussion and it was a great experience.

The panel consisted of (from left to right):

• Nick DeNardis, Associate Director of Web Communications at Wayne State University
• Shauna Nicholson, Marketing Manager, Biznet Internet Solutions
• Chad Wiebesick, Interactive Strategy Director at Perich Advertising + Design. (Moderator)
• Kevin Krason, President, Biznet Internet Solutions
• Ken Burbary, VP Digital at BIG Communications

This free event took place at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There was ~30 people who attended from various industries, they came to get a better understanding of social media and how they can leverage it.

The questions brought out not only the direction and how to for beginners but also the best practices and case studies of the advanced users in the social media field.

On the Refresh Detroit Web site they posted the summary of resources and references.

In addition the entire panel was recorded and is available below.

Audio provided by VC Web Services:

The Biznet Social Media Training event was a great success. We had nearly 150 register, but had to take names for an additional session after 100 due to fire codes. There were a bunch of familiar faces there; if you were there and would like to leave a link to your site in the comments, you’re welcome to do so.)

I was really impressed with the turn out–and the way the Biznet team pulled together to make the event so successful! (Dave Biskner and I were texting after the event and, in his words, “Yeah, no kidding, right!? Best. Team. Ever!”

Unfortunately, we had a problem with the video podcast, but luckily have a couple shots up from the event. Check out Biznet photos on flickr (thanks to Mat)!

REMEMBER TO BRING:
-something to write with
-something to write on
-your favorite marketing person

See you Wednesday! Networking starts at 8:30am!

Relevant community topics & members are key
Often, I explain social media using an offline example. Imagine you’re target market a mom of elementary-aged children.
You could:

• use newspaper advertising
• sponsor children’s sporting events
• infiltrate mom-to-mom coffee shop talks
• solicit daycare facilities

Clearly, you’ll hit moms eventually–but they’re not that targeted or cost-effective and (let’s face it) a little creepy. Social media marketing provides the opportunity to show up (WELCOMED) to mom-to-mom communities and invites you to participate. It’s targeted, relevant, and (best of all) appropriate.

Wallflowering doesn’t cut it for ANYONE
Today I had to opportunity to meet a new group of local professionals over coffee. It amazed me how many of the attendees played down their services (“just another business doing x”) and stared at the floor. HINT: I don’t want to work with “just another company,” nor am I on the floor. If you’re the person introducing your company to a new group, you better have some OOMF.

OOMF’ing in Social Media
Imagine showing up to a meeting and not participating; in fact, you didn’t even get dressed. Not only would you get fired, you’d be ostracized from fellow attendees. Essentially, you’d be what Shannon Paul refers to as “that guy.” Get dressed by adding relevant content and photos to your profiles; participate by adding value to (and requesting value from) the greater community.

Kiva, and projects like it, succeed for a variety of reasons. Here’s how social media best practices ensure the success of charitable giving.

1. They include personality. When the person with the need is introduced, so are details of what makes them unique. This plays on the mentality that users are helping someone they “know,” as opposed to donating blindly.
2. They tell a story in their description. Why does this person need help? What got them to the position they’re in now? Adding these details creates an impact on users, providing them with something to relate to and understand.
3. They use photos. It’s common to hear the term “There are children starving, so finish your dinner,” in the United States; it’s not common to SEE a starving child. This image speaks volumes beyond what any description, cliche, or story could possible communicate.
4. Easy, 24 hour accessibility. This provides a greater audience. If users have donations to give, they’re probably not doing so while at work. Putting the opportunity online transcends physical boundaries and time restrictions.
5. Team participation. By allowing users to step into teams, they encourage each other in their participation. It also provides an opportunity for exposure for the user (“I’m a good person, look what I did!”) They types of teams take the giving to another level; religious, commonality, or otherwise,
6. Case studies. The stories are logged via blogs/journals. Once the giving is complete, the story continues! Case studies reveal the consequences of the donation, encouraging ongoing donations!
7. Users can makes recommendations. This engages users and encourages them to talk to others about what they’re doing. It’s the crowdsourcing of advertising!
8. They offer embeddable media. Oh, look, a badge that touts how wonderful the user is for donating! They can’t wait to post it to their blog, their profiles, their websites… SEO VALUE!
9. They make it easy to email friends. No logging in necessary–do it right from the site. This keeps traffic centrally located, users can talk to their friends, and it draws new traffic in.
10. They offer live participation and community. At any given point, users can communicate with each other in real time. Users can ask questions, share stories, and grow within the community!

Learn more about Blog Action Day here.

WARNING: This post is inspired by Tanya Ferrall‘s “4 Types of Social Media Marketers and the 1 You Never Read About”. I insist to, not only be the “one you never read about” but, offer some insight as to why this type is crucial to your ROI.

Questions to ask your social media marketer:

• Why social media? Like everything else you do for your business, you need to consider the business case for using social media. Without one, your campaign will be less effective and difficult to justify.
• How will we be measuring the ROI? At what point should you measure an ROI? Whether it’s qualitative or quantitative, you’ll need this information to ensure that expectations are met (or exceeded!).
• How do you identify the tools we will be using? If the marketer starts listing off the names of the social media tools (Facebook, blogs, podcasts, etc), a red flag should go up. This question will help you decide whether or not the marketer has a grasp on marketing as a whole. There are many out there focused too much on the tools, rather than why the tools are effective. Solid social media strategies start with identifying relationships, then pairing tools that will be most effective for each.
• What role will I (or a representative) be playing in this campaign? To keep a campaign genuine, you should at least have a “check in” point to ensure the correct communication is being relayed and a personality is kept fresh.
  
• What are my competitors/What is my industry currently doing in this area? Excuse me, but duh? If they don’t know, don’t hire them.
  
• What will I do to differentiate myself from my competitors? If it’s the same, forget it-unless you have a plan to do it better, more effectively, and easily translatable.
• How will this strategy compliment my existing advertising and public relations initiatives? Social media is most successful when the strategy compliments existing mediums. This is why half of Biznet’s (where I work) business is dependent upon supporting advertising and public relations agencies. In fact, social media is an extension of the two and should be handled accordingly.

Just because you’re unfamiliar with a certain marketing medium doesn’t mean you should trust everything you hear. Maintain the same rules for using these tools as you do for all things business, while being willing to understand the way they work. If you need help getting started with social media, developing a network, or engaging a network, follow the links!