Week 3: Frequent Sites

www.crossfitsociety.com

This site is for a business owned by a couple of friends of mine. I also use this site frequently as a member of their gym, so I was curious to know if I could review this site with fresh eyes. Most immediately, they have a rotating display with member pictures and random quotes to the work of the coaches. This was probably an attempt at adding some levity to the otherwise serious business of strength and conditioning. With the exception of one or two rotating backgrounds, the colors and contrast are pleasing and don't negatively distract attention. They placed their brand logo in the upper right hand and their business name on the left, and I wonder if there would be a way to distribute that a little more like the lecture states, and as demonstrated on the Apple site. I also noticed that they only display Twitter and Facebook links at the top, despite having other social media accounts. Right away you notice a call to action on the front page to "Book a Free Consultation". Also, the navigation bar is simple and the depth of content is not overly extensive. They could potentially list Success Stories under About Us, but I don't know if it would make much of a difference, if any. I appreciate that they offer a brief explanation of the services they offer, along with a few site links at the bottom for "Partners" and "Friends", which would direct visitors to like-minded sites. They also have widgets at the bottom for their Yelp reviews and Google Maps to show their location.

When navigating around, you'll notice that their content is up to date, especially in the WOD & Blog area. I noticed that the White Board link under The CFS Experience is not functioning properly, and should be fixed for frequent visitors and members. Overall this site is easy to use, provides excellent content for the subject, and is designed well. I've seen similar sites go too far with information on diets and too much detail on the actual workouts and overall concept. In fact, their original site was on the borderline of offering too much of this, but the changes that they made were just what was needed. I personally keep coming back for the WOD & Blog, so for me, content is key.

http://fourhourworkweek.com/blog/

I visit the Tim Ferriss blog, fairly  often, possibly more often than I need to. The reality is that I love this guy's podcast, as well as the content he provides. Unfortunately, his brand of the "Four Hour..." doesn't explain everything he really does, and he even admits to it often sounding like an infomercial. Obviously, it hasn't been a major detractor when one looks at the success of his books, blog, podcast, high profile guests, and consulting done for major companies.

After talking up his business acumen, I will say that I dislike just a few things about his site. First off, he rotates through some dated photos. I understand that he is trying to promote his accomplishments, but I see the picture of him competing in the tango it makes me feel like I've walked into a gaudy foreign discotheque. His menu seems simple enough, but visitors new to Tim Ferriss may wonder what 4HWW, 4HB, and 4HC signify. It would be easy enough to hover and check for themselves, but maybe offer one menu item titled 4 Hour Book Series, which encompasses all three. He also seems to offer more depth of content for one, and not the others, telling me that he may have gotten tired of adding content to his site.

However, this site is not all that bad in the least, otherwise I would not be a repeat visitor. I subscribe to his VIP newsletter, which is a "call to action" at the top of his page, so there I find out each time a new blog or podcast is released. Even so, I end up visiting his site every few days just to navigate through older content for anything that I might find relevant to my life. He also offers a Most Popular section for specific blog posts and podcast episodes, and beneath that a list of popular topics in which you will find all of his related content.

For the most part his site is simple and effective. You can either scroll through all of his content, or use the easy search function at the top of his page. You will notice that aside from sharing capabilities, and a FB "Like" button, he either doesn't have, or doesn't use, social media. I know that he often  comments(read:complains) about trolling, so I wonder if this is a conscious decision on his part. Either way, the ease of use and great content offered on this site keep me coming back for more.

Week 3 - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...Websites

http://spotmetering.com/

My hope with this website is that the target audience has immediate recognition of what this site offers, and why it is set up in such an aesthetically unappealing manner. When I first opened the page something in my brain must have shut down momentarily, because I found myself staring blankly at the page for at least 15 seconds with no recognition of what I was looking at. The title is not very catchy or descriptive, and is white font, on grey font numbers, on horizontally scrolling off white numbers. The reason for the binary sequenced numbers is beyond me, and I hope it is somehow related to the On-Camera Spot/Partial Metering web page title.

Admittedly, I have a very limited knowledge of photography, but I'm fairly certain that even amateur and professionals would be hard pressed to discover in the first minute what the site's purpose is. It is only when I look through the 10 item menu, I notice that there is a place to order what seems to be a book. 

Get Up to Speed... states that the information architecture should be shallow, but this is kiddie pool shallow with too many options. It seems to me that instead of having so many items, they could have included a few menu items in one group, such as The Back Cover, Sample Page, Reviews, and Appendix. Additionally, when you click on a menu item, the navigation bar changes format for different pages. This site also broke the lecture rule of not making the user scroll for information, which is necessary for almost each page, with the home page being one of the longest.

http://www.roverp6cars.com/

I'll begin by saying that I LOVE the cars in the pictures on this site, and when you first enter the page you know exactly that they are selling some specialty car parts. However, my praise for this site abruptly ends there. Far too many colors are used, and if this weren't an assignment, I would have exited after 10 seconds of looking at the cool European cars. The vertical menu seems harmless at first glance, as they list Home, Parts Webstore, About Us...but then you scroll down to find 30+ options to click on. The icing on the cake is found at the bottom of the page (when scrolling down, don't let yourself get distracted from information overload) where you find the enticing advice which directs the reader to "...check back regularly because we are always adding more".

The rules that this site broke are too many to list, but most importantly for me were the extreme depth of content, no ease of use, and no rhyme or reason for the proximity of all the items.

On a side note, the Derbyshire Weekend Run looks like it would be a good opportunity to take in the scenery of the English countryside.

http://apple.com

Before opening this page, I feel that I was predisposed to to enjoy this site more than your average site. Despite not being a mac user, they definitely know what they are doing, creating an information architecture that is intuitive and easy to use. They list their major products and services at the top of the page, with the Apple logo at the left to promote brand recognition. Depth of content is excellent as you navigate the menu items you are not overwhelmed with choices. I also appreciate that the format stays uniform in each of the pages you visit, making navigation that much nicer.

Really, the page that I am least happy with, is the iTunes page. If possible, they might offer a "back to top" link, since you have to do quite a bit of scrolling. Another option, although I don't know how difficult this feature would be, is to have the menu scroll along with you, so you can continue to navigate to other pages from any location on the current page.

Overall, this is one of the best pages I have visited, although not enough to convert me to become an Apple user.

http://www.toyota.com

Toyota has done a good job with contrasting images with the background and choosing easy to read font type, size, and colors. The 3-4 column view found in the "Select Vehicle" and "Shopping Tools" drop-down is easy to use and visually pleasing. I also appreciate that they list the same options found in the drop-down at the bottom of the page, so a wide variety of tech savvy users can access it. This may also help with those not as tech savvy who are using from a mobile device such as tablet or smartphone. I have personally seen users have trouble when using these devices for any sort of drop-down menu options.

The main page scrolls through four vehicles, which I assume are top sellers, or at least what the company would like to draw your attention to, so I give them a top grade on implementing a good marketing hierarchy. The site also has a feature under the displayed vehicles, which allows you to view Cars & Minivans, Trucks, Crossover & SUV's, Hybrids & EV's. From any of these options, there is an "X" in the upper right corner of the display which brings you back to the Featured vehicles.

Not much to criticize this page on, and I would definitely use it if I were in the market for a new car. 

Week 2 - Businesses and their Social Media Presence

Whole Foods Market

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

Whole Foods looks to be deeply invested in Social Media Marketing. Their website contains links to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, and YouTube. Each link is well used, and very current. Having checked this company on Valentine’s Day, I was extremely impressed at how their use of marketing with social media seemed effortless. They had many posts, videos, and pictures with ideas for Valentine’s Day crafts, gifts, and food. Most of pics on Instagram had thousands of likes, their YouTube page had 28,000 subscribers, and their tweets are constantly retweeted. Overall, this company has an impressive social media presence and remains completely current.

Captain’s Helm

http://www.captainshelm.com/

http://blog.captainshelm.com/

I wanted to choose a local business for an example, and found a resale clothing shop that my wife loves to frequent. On their main page I found their Facebook, Tumblr, and Instagram, but exploring further on their Facebook account, I found that they also have a very comprehensive blog, which I also included a link to. They have a significant amount of “Likes” on FB, and followers on Instagram, and get a lot of comments and feedback. The most recent posts, comments, and likes were made the day of the search. Overall, they seem to be doing a great job interacting with their community.

Local Tap House

http://localtaphouse.com/

Local Tap House is one of my favorite local eateries, and I was happy to see that they had updated their site and social media since the last time I checked a few months back. They have links to Instagram, Twitter, and Instagram. Instagram has a decent amount of followers with 500+, but Twitter has less than 100. Before a Valentine’s Day post, the most recent Instagram pic was late January, and Facebook was on the same timeline. Overall, they have a decent web presence, but it looks like their social media activity comes in waves.

Harvard Business School

http://www.hbs.edu/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.hbs.edu/about/social-media/Pages/default.aspx

Although this may not be considered a business in the traditional sense, I chose Harvard Business School for a few reasons. Initially, my interest was due to see how effective social media can be for colleges, being that I work at one. Secondly, I thought that choosing a well-known business school would have relevant information for this class.

When looking at the HBS main page, the first link above, I found the main social media accounts for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, and Sina Weibo(Chinese microblogging site). However, I was so impressed with the second link above that I included for the readers who may not venture too far. What impressed me most is the sheer number, possibly 50+, of accounts that HBS has for many of their different affiliations, from school alumni to their Social Media Enterprise group. While some of these accounts are not as current as others, most seem to have significant followers. Additionally, this could also be a good study of how much is too much when it comes to social media investment. Most of the major accounts are current up to the day.

Tony Robbins

http://www.tonyrobbins.com/

While I admit to having little knowledge of this individual, aside from the infomercials promoting his work as a motivational speaker, he has built himself a powerful and popular brand. I wanted to see how somebody working without the traditional business, continues to market themselves using social media. This guy has followers in the millions on Facebook and Twitter, and close to that with Google+. His main page also has his LinkedIn and YouTube account, the latter of which has over 100K subscribers. He has for Facebook as recent as the day prior to searching, similar to his tweets and retweets, one of which was retweeting somebody’s joke about Tony Robbins.

Week 2: Me, on Effective Communication with Businesses

I can think of a few examples in recent years of when I made an attempt to communicate with a business or consumers, either by email or through a review. In these experiences, my communication directly with a business has almost always been most effective. Every example using social media to communicate with, or review, a business has ultimately yielded no tangible results. However, I have to remind myself of my motive or intention when posting a review online versus sending an email directly. When I email a company, it is usually because of a specific issue that I would like acknowledgement for, or resolution of. The difference when I post a review, is that I am sharing my experience with the consumer, so that they might make a better informed decision if choosing between companies. Therefore, resolution of an issue isn't as important to me as sharing information. That does not mean that I would not have appreciated a response, but typically, given the negative experience that I am sharing, I set my expectations low.

Two experiences specifically come to mind when I posted reviews on Yelp. The first was for a bar and grill in Encinitas, where some friends of mine were meeting to watch a morning world cup game. Without going into too much detail, the service was terrible, and the waitress accused our party of not tipping after not returning our change which equaled a tip of roughly 25%. The other was after two separate experiences at a Solana Beach restaurant in which we were given exceptionally poor service. I left reviews for both establishments, but received no response. I feel it necessary to mention that I've also left several positive reviews for other restaurants, shops, B&B's, and hotels, while rarely, if ever, receiving a response. As mentioned earlier, receiving a response was not my intention, which was instead, to inform potential customers.

In contrast, I have experienced several very positive results when contacting companies, always directly through a website contact page or by email. The most memorable was when my wife and I were stranded in foreign airport for 20 hours, only to be sent back to a hotel with a potential flight the following morning. While at the airport we were given literature by an airport employee informing us of our travelers rights in European airports. Naturally, when we finally got home, we both wrote the airline, and to our surprised heard a response, but with different compensation amounts for each of us, both of which were lower than the amounts stated in traveler's bill of rights. After several emails back and forth we both ended up with airline credit which still was less than that stated, but more than satisfactory for the experience.
Looking back, I'm not sure that social media would have yielded different results in the times that I communicated directly. However, this belief may be a result of the one sided communication when using social media. Maybe it is time to try social media again, given it has been a few years and companies are learning to be more receptive and connected to social media.

Week 1 - Social Media Platforms: Social vs. Business

In performing a basic google search for "social media platforms", 4 of the first 5 results were articles related to using social media for business or marketing. While I may be arriving late to the game, this tells me that the majority of social media can, or is currently being used for business, even if only at a small level. From what I know of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn alone, each site can be used to build a brand, garner support and followers, and disseminate information quickly and effectively. Sites such as Pinterest could be used to build a brand through bookmarking and linking to similar products and business, or like-minded services. The article below really caught my eye, with its title of  "Top 52 Social Media Platforms Every Marketer Should Know". I have never thought much about it, but never imagined 52 different social media platforms, much less 52 important enough to know for the population of marketers.

http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2010/04/09/top-52-social-media-platforms/

The sites that I am far less familiar with are dating social media sites and networks. Having been in a relationship for the past 9 years, I have no personal experience with these. However, I've seen sites such as Match, OkCupid, and Tinder become popular with many of my friends over the past few years. These sites seem limited to strictly social use, and I really can't imagine being able to utilize them for business outside of paid advertising.

Needless to say, I became more aware of the variety of ways to market a business using each of these sites. Of the 52 platforms in the article, I would not have considered many "social media" prior to this class. Sites like iTunes and Picassa being listed alongside Facebook and Instagram, really shows me that I have let myself become disconnected from much of this new technology. While I know that this class isn't meant to be a tutorial on the business applications for each site, it will teach us to explore the applications, whether intended or unplanned, of current and future platforms.

Week 1

I found this template aesthetically pleasing, and the background of a map is something I identified with immediately. There was a large selection of templates, themes, backgrounds, and pictures to choose from which to choose, and after previewing almost each one, I settled on this. However, that was not the end of my process, I still needed to test each color out, contemplating with each one how that would fit my subject matter, which is hardly relevant at this point in the course.

As I proceeded through this process of selecting a template, I realized that I was going to have to overcome one major obstacle if I am going to be successful not only in this course, but social media in general. That obstacle in particular, to make everything "perfect". Looking back at the very few times that I attempted to post on FB or applied a filter and caption to a photo on Instagram, I would either give up, or spend 15-20 minutes completing it, and still finishing below my expectation.

With this realization, consistent practice through this course, and desire to apply this to my work, I'm hoping that I can get past this obstacle, and hopefully learn from it.

Saludos...to my first blog post!