The Simplify Company

Your Front Door

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:10:00 -0800

As many of you know I have a hobby-maybe-bigger pre-occupation of late, with aquaponic gardening. I was reading an article recently with Murray Hallam and Sylvia Bernstein, two very well known leaders in the world of plants and fish. Here is an excerpt from PracticalAquaponics.com.

Murray Hallam. …Now, why do you think we need a website?

Sylvia Bernstein. You know, the reality today is that we connect to each other in many ways through the internet. If somebody is going to find you, chances are they’re going to do it through the internet. Even if they go, let’s take the scenario, they go to the farmers market and they see you there at your table, and they think “wow, Aquaponics, what’s that? Maybe I want to learn more about these people” .They’re going to go home and they’re going to look for you on the internet.

So the internet has really become the common store front for all of us, and your website is very much the front door. It’s your business on line, and that is where people get an impression of you, and so, their impression is either going to be “ooh” or “these people don’t know what they’re doing” or “they sell too hard” or “they’re very amateurish. Gosh, I’m not sure that I want to trust them with my food “, which is a pretty important thing…..Or, you’re going to get the impression that these are people that I can really relate to and that I want to do business with them. I want to really support them as local farmers. And the difference between website number one and website number two can really be some very minor differences, and we’re going to go into some of that in this class.

Murray Hallam. Sylvia, I can really relate to what you’re saying there because I know I do that, I tend to look at the website, you know, get the internet up when I’m looking for anything at all, even if I am about to go down the road to the Mall, I tend to look up the internet first, to get an idea of what I want…So true.

Sylvia Bernstein. You bet, and God forbid you can’t find them on the internet.

Murray Hallam. I think “What’s going on here?”

Sylvia Bernstein. Exactly; “What’s going on here? These people aren’t real. You know, they must be just slack, or whatever.” But all sorts of bad things happen!!! So, it’s very important. You know, it’s funny to think, that even as a farmer, you really do need to have a good internet presence that represents who you really are.

Take a look at the photo at the top of this post. Which door would you prefer to enter? Does your business have a website that is a suitable front door for your online visitors? Got one?-Great! Have you advertised? Can your front door be found online?
Today is Monday morning here. Have a great week!

TMI vs Untended

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:02:37 -0800

Balance.

The two most common social media blunders are like most things in life, at opposite ends of a best practices continuum. If you blog, FB, Tweet or G+ to get your vital message out, consider a self-audit exercise. It won’t take but a few minutes.

Quickly review your past month of posts. Note the media type, frequency and maybe rank your content as fluff / personal / on-target / vital.

Now consider your communication goals via social media. You have goals, yes? Think about this for a while. Jot some first thoughts down and save this for future pondering-planning.

The most common social media blunders are To Much Information (TMI) and an Untended Social Presence. Based on your industry, your target audience and key messages, you pretty much know where you want to be in the space between these extremes of blunder.

What is the solution? Preplan and be intentional. Just because you can and have a thought doesn’t mean you should share with everyone impulsively. Consider pre-writing in draft your week’s (or day’s) content in social media that represents your key messaging to your target audience in the best media. This may differ from FB to Twitter to LinkedIn. Come back to it later, review what you’ve written and schedule the release rate. Sure there’s room for timely response to what you read, commenting etc. Just be sure you are making room for that in the strategy and not simply firing off posts willy-nilly without a plan.

Balance requires discipline, time and a budget. Your company, non-profit and you deserve that deliberate investment.

Photo: Carla Swope from InnerVisionYoga.ca. Justin Brown Photography

School Leaders Blogging!

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:44:00 -0800

Recently the Vancouver Sun’s Education writer, Janet Steffenhagen, presented a list of BC School Superintendents who blog. I followed the links and with considerable interest noted the variety of blog presentations.

I say with considerable interest because these bloggers represent the top of the administrative and leadership heap for the school districts they lead. Their readership consists of a more diverse mix than most bloggers have to consider. They are writing to their bosses, the Board. Also their staff, their principals, teachers, students and the toughest crowd of all, their students’ parents. So, how do the leaders of the fundamental educational pillar in our communities present? What do they present?

I toyed with the idea of a superintendent blogging report card but decided against this. Here however are the basic items I consider when reviewing or developing and invite you to add your own.

Who is the blogger? Much can be learned from how the ‘about’ page. Personal identity, goals of the blog, corporate identity…
Who is the intended, identified audience? Does the writer identify who she/he is writing to?
Read the comments? Are readers engaging with the writer? Is dialogue encouraged or is the blog intended as a newsletter? (there are better platforms for this) Are easy sharing tools provided for the reader?
Dedication. How frequently does the blogger post?
Photos. How are photos managed? When you click on the an image, what happens? Huge, unwieldy download or nice, quick, expanded view?
Blog design. Is the blog inviting? Does it make you want to get to know the blogger better and share the link with others? Is it part of the School District website or a stand-alone? Which do you prefer?
Access. How does one find it? Search in Google by author name and blog title. Does it show up?
Social Media Policy. Generally not readily apparent but I would be curious if the blog is guided by a policy of the Board. After all, the blog content must be defendable, like everything else an educational institution does.

While blogging has been around for a while, for many institutions it is a new venture. Like everything else the institution does, blogging involves an investment of resources. Time to write, time to research, time to edit, gather and edit photos, develop guidelines, write policy and evaluate.

While some of the blogs on this list are clearly in early days, others were engaging, well considered and warrant return visits. Interesting reading. Thank you.

Think. (please)

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 08:30:00 -0800

Oh my, I feel a rant coming on!

I’m ready for a productive day of work with a client meeting late afternoon. S’all good. Quick morning scan through some things and we’re off, yes!

Apparently not. What is happening to this morning?

I received a targeted email from an organization thrilled that they have new content on their ABOUT webpage. (really?)
Flipped through a recent issue of Canadian Fire Chief magazine and skimmed an article by an Ontario Fire Chief about social media. Apparently kids increasingly prefer communicating with online friends through social media, and “any fire department” can make a simple video, post it to YouTube and if it generates “word of mouth buzz” and “goes viral” it will be viewed by millions. (relevance alarms going off everywhere)
Vereburn, a large medical supply company sent a 1 page, 2 sided flyer across the country announcing boldly “NOW SHOP ONLINE!” with nary a reference to their web address on the entire flyer.
In my email Inbox this morning there is a new Twitter follow from Tick Ripper. Apparently a gadget you should have in your wallet and use to remove ticks. The Twitter page for Tick Ripper doesn’t display images and the linked website defaults to a godaddy domain park page.

Please, before you publish, send, text, launch or even phone, consider who your target audience is and be clear about your message.

If the goal is engagement, please endeavor to inspire confidence. Maybe this can be accomplished by outsourcing the communication task, choosing a message worthy of the reader’s time and attention, simply closing your loops and sometimes, just not communicating until you know you’re ready. And hey, how about a proofer? Now there’s an idea!

Is Facebook my website?

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:10:00 -0700

I get asked; “Should I invest in our FB presence or will it (Facebook) fade away soon?”

My thinking is that if FB was leaving anytime soon, innovative integration and partnerships FB related would slow down. Innovation and FB related development definitely aren’t slowing down.

F A C E B O O K S T O R E F R O N T S

What is now coined as f-commerce is evolving continually and quickly. Online stores can be set up with providers such as Payvment.com. Here are two examples.

- https://www.facebook.com/DoLifeNow?sk=app_135607783795
- https://www.facebook.com/bikerchicjewelry

F A C E B O O K R E A C H

FB is now extendable to your website via Open Graph. For a while now we’ve been integrating FB live feeds into your website pages, now we can go the other way as well. We’re jumping on this and would encourage you to consider this as well. It is new, innovative and seems to be where online interaction between the target audience and your organization is headed.

C U S T O M F A C E B O O K P A G E S

Make a great first impression with a welcome page! Here is Target Baby’s FB page. Other custom FB pages can detail your service. Here are two examples.

So, why not just have a FB page instead of a website? Good question. All the features are certainly there. Truth is, some people don’t spend time on FB. I know, hard to imagine, yes? A website anchor presence is still a very good idea.

And why is all this new functionality so brilliant and suddenly so necessary? Well, think about how and why FB works. Fundamentally it is still about a ‘friend’ or ‘like’ connection responding to something on your FB site or FB enhanced website, and their 438 friends noticing.

Simcolab Software Inc.

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 19:25:00 -0700

The Student Intervention Manager is a tool for School Counselors to use for Student Interventions. We’re pretty excited about it and are working hard to get the word out.

Imagine, every time you as the School Counselor make a good action decision to benefit the student you are working with, your wisdom will immediately help someone else who is also using siM. Likewise, as you make your best prescribed action decisions, you are instantly provided with perspective from everyone else who has ever used siM!

You’ll also find good information about siM at our Simcolab.com website and you can spread the news around by ‘liking’ the Simcolab Facebook page.

This is one of the most exciting projects I have been part of, right up there with HirGrnd.ca. Why? Well, they’re both meaningful and actually designed to help people!

New Business Cards

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:42:00 -0700

Stand Back! I have new business cards and I’m NOT afraid to use them!
Actually, step up. I want to give you one. :)

ref: Print100.com - best deal for the quality I could find.

Make your Facebook business page unique

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 09:53:00 -0700

Make your Facebook business page unique:

Does your business Facebook site have some custom pages that make it different?

Vedder Mountain Grille has Menus a Review and Location Map page. That little extra makes a big difference!

Nathan Leggatt presents EmmaActive

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 01:02:00 -0700

Nathan recently presented at Demo, an emerging tech conference in Silicon Valley. I’m proud to showcase Nathan here because EmmaActive represents a significant achievement for him. Nathan is an innovative developer I’ve enjoyed working with on Simcolab.com.

Have a look at EmmaActive. Nathan, Terry and Justin are doing a masterful job and the result is both timely and revolutionary for the internet today.

Fraser Cascade Teachers new website

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 12:06:00 -0700

With BC Teachers’ Union issues so much in the news it was timely that the Fraser Cascade Teachers’ Association launched their new website this summer. They now have an excellent, economical tool for relaying critical, timely information to their membership and the public.

The fcta78.com website isn’t full of photo galleries and video - it is intended to be a practical, economical workhorse. The home page carries the latest news updates that President Lynne Marvel can enter whenever and from wherever she happens to be. Minutes, Pro-D Day resources, online forms, embedded Facebook widget and an events calendar are some of the practical features.

Third party solutions kept the cost down and provided good functionality. Yammer.com is used for in-house forum discussions and Google Docs is where documents are uploaded and linked to from the webpages. Their online form for Pro-D Day Funding Requests is also a Google Doc form.

We especially enjoy working on projects such as these that although small, serve a very practical purpose. To all teachers, now in week 2 of this new school year, have an excellent school year!

kANSWER

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:00:00 -0700

hmmm…

I spoke with a client about blogging today. Tonight I wandered onto a blog that is so super effective I had to read most of the posts.

Why? Because it is real.

What do you write about on your blog? What do I write about on mine? And what does Larissa write about on her blog?

http://kanswer.tumblr.com/ Check it out. Give yourself some time to read it. Then give yourself some time to re-read it and also dwell on it.

Be encouraged, brave and motived. Apparently others who have reason not to be, are.

MyTherapyBar.com

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:51:00 -0700

This interesting little project began with a taste. After enjoying the chocolate bar that we purchased in Vancouver’s Whole Foods Market I called Shadi Javadi, the owner of Deliss Chocolate Inc, we met and began I working with her on this great little WordPress project. I wanted to meet her because I thought the marketing concept was brilliant and her story fascinating!

This website enables Shadi to update the website content on her own. She is a tireless promoter who uses Facebook and Twitter well so we integrated these two social media right into the website. Every time she updates on Twitter or Facebook it appears on her website pages as a live feed. Google Search loves this inbound traffic and it will affect the website’s search engine ranking.

A simple Google Maps embed enables the retail location mashup to help potential customers find My Therapy Bar. If your local upscale, socially conscious food market is not carrying this bar, there is a Wholesale application provided for them to open an account. An interested Japanese client prompted Shadi to include a Japanese ‘about’ page with consultation and translation provided by Yuya Kato at GPE.

A recent update: Save On Foods, major food retailer in British Columbia, Canada is carrying the bar across their chain in the next few months. Congratulations Shadi!

Transparency

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:01:53 -0700

I’m thinking about these listed items today. We are currently outlining a communications strategy for a client group. As this is top of mind at the moment I’m talking with more people about their organization’s communication strategy. Last night, speaking with a communications person from one of Canada’s major universities, I was interested and surprised to hear about her struggle to introduce a comprehensive plan and the bureaucratic push-back she is experiencing.

This is from greenbiz.com.

“…consumers now rank trust and transparency higher than the quality of products and services, prices and financial performance… these are the factors most important to corporate reputation:

Transparent and honest practices: 83 percent

Company I can trust: 83 percent

High quality products or services: 79 percent

Communicates frequently: 75 percent

Treats employees well: 72 percent

Good corporate citizen: 64 percent

Prices fairly: 58 percent

Innovator: 48 percent

Top leadership: 47 percent

Financial returns: 45 percent”

Are the terms ‘transparency’, ‘trust’ and ‘communicate frequently’ in your organization’s communication strategy?

Social media is an excellent tool for all of the above. As an organization however, handle with care and definitely have a plan.

Partnership

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 11:18:00 -0700

Recently I have been more keenly aware of the significance and necessity of partnerships. Almost every project and client account I’m invited to involves a new relationship, necessary to successfully accomplish the goal. Sometimes I derive more benefit, personally and in business, from the relationship than the project itself!

Over a decade ago I heard a non-profit sector expert tell us that the future of every non-profit organization is entirely dependent on their ability to form and maintain effective symbiotic relationships with other organizations.

Relationships require energy, staff time and vision. How often do you and I step back from task mode and strategize specifically about who we need and want to partner with. Partnering also means listening and contributing - not just sucking the juice you need to accomplish your goals.

Look at and think about your brand. If your’re brave enough, invite others to reflect with you. Your brand is essentially the shadow your organization or business casts. I hope you see your partners in that snapshot. If not, go find some.

This website works very hard. (does your's?)

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 22:32:00 -0700

Everyone wants to get the message out to their target audiences, effectively and online. Lately, most organizations also wants this communication to become a dialogue and possibly even a relationship of sorts! Consider this site a good model of online outreach and engagement.

Matthijs at Exit170.ca in Kelowna BC built this site. Matthijs and I collaborate on projects from time to time and this Hope based literacy project impresses me because it’s so hard working! Feel free to open the site in a new tab or window and follow along.

HOME page. Wanna find a program? Are you a map person? A program title person? A calendar person? A upcoming events list person? Many ways to find what you’re looking for, and quickly.
What does a hard working website do? It DELIVERS within one-to-two clicks of the visitor’s arrival.
ABOUT page. Still with me?
Good ‘about’ information - not too much text. This is more important than it sounds. Clarity and brevity are critical.
What’s the organization behind Wanna Read? Visit the Wiki! No wasted pages of information on the website about the Fraser Cascade Literacy Initiative because that would distract from the message of WannaRead.org. Instead a good use of a 3rd Party free wiki that enables the FC-Literacy folks to interact and gives you, the website visitor a window in if you’re interested. I like the transparency of this wiki.
Event photos at Flickr.com. Good use of an excellent photo display / sharing site that spreads the Wanna Read message to people who search on Flickr specifically as well.
Donation link button to CanadaHelps.org. Wanna Read welcomes support but isn’t committing much room on it’s website because it is intent on communicating ‘on message’. The message is not about asking for help.
You see how the website is designed to be a hub, not an end-all-be-all for all the information. Decide what needs to stay in-house. In WannaRead’s case they decided that the Blog should be a main menu item. Not everyone uses Twitter and Facebook so the Blog catches everyone with latest news.

Use good tools that are available. The 3rd party sites WannaRead.org uses also tells me they’re using their communication dollars wisely. I like the effective exploiting of these excellent 3rd party resources with a simple account setup with each 3rd party site and a link to it from the WannaRead.org website.
WannaRead.org also has a Facebook presence and initiated a recent successful foray into Twitter use. I expect these will be embedded on the website when WannaRead.org is confident they effectively reach otherwise unreachable readers. Recognize that although widespread in use, not everyone, especially in the marginal literate target group, is connected via social media.

Finally, what makes this website most effective is that it truly is a representation of what actually happens on the ground in real-time. It invites engagement online but mostly it reinforces, reports on and invites you to the real work that happens in all the communities dotted on the home page map.

How hard does your organization work? How hard does your organization’s website work? Contact me if you’d like to review it and discuss it’s potential.

Are you excited? Do your customers know?

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 10:29:00 -0700

I stopped in at a coffee shop in the valley yesterday and probably won’t return. It had what I thought I needed; good coffee, pretty good snacks/food, great location, free wifi, smiling staff.

What went wrong?

The owners.

The staff worked hard to engage, serve well and were mostly successful. The owners however, hovered and seemed preoccupied with evaluating the product, the operation and the issues of running their shiny new shop. In short, the stuff that was important to them. The customers were invisible to them, talking over all our heads about their plans, their issues. The customers were to be served by staff, so they had a bunch of them - too many.

When tables, chairs are set up, food and beverages offered and served, you are inviting others to use this space to meet, discuss business, share thoughts, think, work, exchange happy or awful news, build a relationship, mend a relationship or just sit and read a book with some good coffee. A coffee shop is a refuge from the street, from the office, maybe even from home. This purpose needs to be honored and catered to by the proprietors or customers won’t return. They’ll figure out that you, the owner, don’t care or just don’t get it.

When it is done well, you, the customer, just know it. The owners get it and it filters down to your experience in their shop. Some local experts in Hope BC that I know are Gord Younie at the Hope Drive In, Graeme and Sonia at the Owl Street Cafe, Wes Bergmann at the Blue Moose and Mark Spencer at Jungle Juice Company. Laurie and her staff in Yarrow’s Vedder Mountain Grille also truly get it. You’ll recognize people like them in your own community by their eye contact with you, the attention to detail and the obvious open invitation to stop in again soon because they’re really glad you came by.

Featured Business Leaders - mostly a boys club.

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:27:00 -0700

Today’s BC Business online arrived. The feature article is “Career Advice from BC Business Leaders”.

17 business leaders share their wisdom. Of 17 leaders in the feature, 4 are women. A telling banner ad placement in the next column highlights the powerofwomen.com event in Vancouver this summer.

You Can Help

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 08:00:06 -0700

Owning and running a business is hard work. Ask any small to medium size business owner. That’s small to medium size business, not small to medium size owner.

Most business owners I work with and get to know are working many, many hours and not looking for ONE MORE THING to do. They usually will donate time and resources to community building events and they’ll always have time for you, their customer, but bringing business in the door is not something they relish spending time on.

Why not?

They are expert in the focus of their business. Marketing is not usually packaged in their skill set. That’s why magazine and newspaper ads were always so great. Pay the paper, get your ad in there, then wait for people to come in the door and the phone to ring.

Along comes social media. It is time intensive and for most business owners, new territory requiring learning time.

Here’s where you come in. Review sites. Some businesses will guide you there but most don’t. If you have had a great experience in a shop or restaurant, take a few minutes and jot down a sentence or two online about it! Sites such as TripAdvisor, Yelp and UrbanSpoon are easy to use.

If your experience was less than good, drop a note to the owners rather than raking them publicly online. Why? Well, Google Search likes your online reviews and takes note. A positive review can really help with exposure online for the business. Conversely, a negative review stays online just as long and the business suffers for a long time with that review ‘out there’ when a personal note may have encouraged improvement on your issue at that business without causing collateral marketing damage.

When reviewing a business, provide information that you would have found helpful if you were a prospective first time visitor to that business. Be objective, enthusiastic, informative and identify yourself if you like. It adds credibility to your comments.

If you are a business owner, find the appropriate review sites and list your business. Encourage reviewers to visit the site with their thoughts and be sure to interact with your reviewers on the review sites. Participating in social media in this rudimentary way can make the difference to being seen or not being seen online.

New Words I Learned Yesterday at New Ventures BC

Fri, 27 May 2011 11:01:00 -0700

New Words I Learned Yesterday at New Ventures BC:

- term sheet

- non-dilutive

- throw-away pitch

- DD Binder

Enjoying the learning as we develop Simcolab Software Inc!

How do we teach? How do we learn? And how do we work? I like to read on this topic and have been...

Fri, 20 May 2011 16:11:00 -0700

How do we teach? How do we learn? And how do we work? I like to read on this topic and have been inspired by those who think about this much more than I.

As I review how I work, how I develop and deliver client projects, I have come to realize the following.

In school we were taught to achieve certain levels. A contract or the proposal before it, establishes the benchmarks that will represent success. To deliver just the required items however doesn’t complete the project.

Every project has the capacity to deliver beyond the quoted requirements.

I have grown up afraid to ask for help because I thought asking would make me appear weak or not fit for the task. I have learned that collective effort and brainpower is always more powerful than singular. Collaboration in work always has proven to be a stronger model than a strictly competitive work environment.

I am continually learning to listen better. I clearly remember my teachers in school reminding me to pay more attention in class. I’m improving Ms Ambrose.

Failure always provides more learning. Uncomfortable learning but learning nevertheless.

I work hard. It pays off. Most of the time I enjoy it.

What is the experience of work like for you?