Confab is “the content strategy conference,” put on annually by Brain Traffic in Minneapolis. Their 2011 conference was a tough act to follow, but this year’s gathering did not disappoint. The following is a download of some of my takeaways.
Speak in pictures.
Dan Roam’s keynote kicked off the conference with something the graphic design world has known for decades: “To make content memorable, make it visual.” He referenced the book Moonwalking with Einstein, which examines how memory works—the gist being that the human brain turns ideas, words, stories, etc. into pictures in order to remember them. Our minds can parce and process dozens of images in the same time it takes us to read and process a single sentence. We will also remember those images more accurately and for longer than the sentence.
He posits that all “vivid ideas”—those that we quickly understand and that stick with us—have the following characteristics (which we can remember using his acronym FOREST):
Form—Make your idea specific and tangible, not abstract.
Only Essentials (or BLUF – bottom line up front)—Don’t hinder the idea with unnecessary information; get to the point.
Recognizable—Make sure the tangible form you’re using is a familiar one. It will be easy to remember and connect with. For example, the top dozen business books sold in the last decade all use visual metaphors as titles: Blue Ocean Strategy, Purple Cow, The Tipping Point, Linchpin. None of these have technical, literal titles; they all use images packed with meaning.
Evolving—A vivid idea has room within it for your audience to add to it, evolve it through their own experiences.
Spans Differences—This one is a little difficult to explain. Dan used this example: Car makers start with the choice between power and efficiency; a car can’t have both. So to come up with a great idea that achieves both, look at the thing that’s forcing it to be one or the other. Tesla Motors spanned the power-efficiency divide by replacing the internal combustion engine, the hindrance, with an electric one. I think the point is this: challenge the thing that makes innovation impossible and therein lies your great idea.
Targeted—A vivid idea is one that considers its audience. Align it to the needs and style of the people your trying to reach.
My conference buddy, Christa Bianchi, suggested that “targeted” should be where we start, not where we end. And I’ll add that “spans differences” should follow. The rest are just refinements.
While I find Dan’s mnemonic rather forced and disjointed, its essence is a good general checklist that we marketers can use when developing a new campaign, website or product concept. To learn more about Dan’s vivid thinking, check out his new book, Blah Blah Blah. It’s really fun to read…because it’s full of pictures.
User experience (UX) should drive every project.
With the best visuals of the conference (below), Jared Spool’s “Mobile & UX” session was a LOL good time; it was also really informative. For years, he posits, market maturation has followed this path: Technology > Features > Experience. That is, innovation takes place in the tools and machines first. Once we reach our limit there and the existing hardware becomes more affordable, then companies pay attention to the features—what can we make this hardware do. Then when they’ve maxed out features, they move on to user experience—how can we make the user’s interaction with this hardware and these features better. Any designer (industrial, graphic, web, content) knows that this process is backward.
For a more successful [website, app, widget, brand, event], begin the process with user experience. The Kano Model is where to start. Basic functionality alone is not going to make your investment pay off. Rather, you need to add elements of delight. But beware: Over time, delighters become basic functionality, so you have to keep giving users more. (We used to be delighted when our [hotel, coffee shop, airplane] had WiFi. Now we’re annoyed if it doesn’t.)
With technology advancing, features abounding, and users becoming more and more demanding, experience designers have to truly be a jack of all trades. Or, rather, experiences need to be created by teams so that each of these skills is available:
Experience Designers have to have many skills:
(One of the great things that happens at these conferences is validation. Thinkso has always focused on being multidisciplinary. We do work across just about every platform and in every industry. Everyone on our staff is armed with multiple skills. Our interactive design director has a degree in philosophy and is a kick-ass illustrator. Our marketing strategist is also a photographer with a degree in creative writing. I can confidently state that the Thinkso staff covers every skillset in the graphic above.)
Site search analytics is a virtual hotline between your company and its users.
Another great thing about these conferences is that we get taught by industry super heros. Lou Rosenfeld is the author of Information Architecture (the big book with the polar bear on the front, the bible for IA). His session focused on site search analytics (SSA). This refers to the data around the words that users on your site put into your search field (not what people are searching for on Google). SSA is not automatically set up in your Google Analytics, but it can be turned on.
Looking carefully at what keywords users are searching for on your site—and on what page they are entering these terms—will tell you a lot about what your audiences want, what nomenclature they are using, and what information might be on your site but they aren’t finding. Mapping SSA by time can help you determine the seasonality of certain keywords—what audiences are interested at certain times of the year. Then you can switch up messaging accordingly.
Another cool tip: If your organization’s jargon (e.g., program or product names) are low in the SSA, don’t spend money on name awareness. Just make sure you use the language users are using on those program pages.
Organic search is still more important than social media.
Melanie Phung, Director of New Media for PBS, shared her search engine optimization (SEO) best practices with us.
Organic search makes up 40% of most site’s traffic. What’s more, hits generated through organic search are of higher quality than those generated through social media. (Higher quality = stay on your site longer, visit more pages, take action.)
Despite what many experts believe, search ranking is very important because 90% of clicks happen on the first search results page and the first result gets 50% of those clicks.
SEO is not about making content for machines. It’s about making sure machines understand your content so that they give you the visibility you deserve. What search engines care about:
Words. Visuals are great on your site, but be sure to contextualize them with text on your page so the engines can find the content in the video.
The brand/reputation/design of your site. (Yes, search engines now measure how “authoritative” your site is through how well its put together, written and designed.)
Social media shares/inbound links. Get others to link to your site.
Search engines are treasure troves of audience data.
Another industry superstar, James Mathewson from IBM, continued the SEO discussion. The gist of his presentation: Keyword research helps us reduce jargon and improve customer delight.
He gave us a few more insights into what search engines care about, in particular what Google’s Panda and Penguin look at:
It’s important to have real content above the fold. Not just pictures or, gawd forbid, ads.
The algorithms look at your whole web environment rather than one page at a time. So the quality of your site overall is more important than having one or two really good pages.
The semantic relationship between two words is very important to these modern algos. In other words, your content needs to be well written. Repeating the same keyword from sentence to sentence does not make for well written copy; therefore, it will hurt your SEO, not help it.
Marketers beware: Google uses spaces between words to parse language. When you put words together, they are gibberish to Google.
Don’t use corporate jargon! Instead, find out what terms (keywords) your audience uses and use those.
Content should be your primary “platform.”
Karen McGrane closed out Confab with an entertaining, informative (and irreverent) look at the publishing world, structured content, and content distribution strategies. She’s another verifiable superstar in this biz (which she clearly knows) and her presentations never disappoint.
She gave us a review of how the news media (Condé Nast, New York Times, NPR, Boston Globe, The Guardian) are handling platform fragmentation (and by that I mean: we’re digesting media on so many different devices and through so many formats). NPR’s approach is the clear winner: Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE). Over the last year, NPR’s total page view growth has increased by more than 80%.
Why are the news organizations the innovators? Because they already have what we in the web world call structured content. Journalists automatically write in chunks: hed, dek, lede, captions, cutline, nut graf. This structured content is adaptive content. It can be easily pushed out through various channels. It’s presentation independent. When writing content this way, you automatically have what you need to communicate on a long-form web page, in print, on a mobile site, through Twitter.
The ingredients for successful adaptive content:
Create content in multiple, flexible pieces.
Attach meaningful metadata to that content.
Write for reuse.
Adaptive content should be created separate from styling. That way, styling can be applied (through an API) on a platform-specific basis. Current CMSs bind content to display and delivery. We’re going to have to start separating them if we want to succeed with our fragmented distribution channels.
For nontechnical marketers, the main takeaway is to start thinking of your primary platform as content. Up until the late 90s, our primary platform was print. (Let’s create a print brochure and then put it on our website). Then print was replaced by the web as the primary platform. (Let’s design our website and then create a print companion piece.) Making content our primary platform, we allocate the proper resources to it. Allocating resources means we do all the things Karen espouses: teaching authors how to write in chunks, separating content from display, creating a CMS with UX in mind. This gives our content structure. Which gives it freedom. Which gives us freedom. Amen.
Other bits and pieces.
Content strategy is not the same as a content management system (CMS). —Cleve Gibbon, Cognifide
Website projects are complicated. Website content has “essential complexity.” It can’t be too simplified because then it won’t be meaningful. “Accidental complexity” is added to the project by poor or unavoidable decisions. Don’t be afraid of the essential complexity; rather, use abstraction and encapsulation to make it simple for your audiences. Avoid introducing accidental complexity.
“Governance” is an essential part of any website. It is the policies and guidelines that direct the content, the people who create it and the systems that support it through both the day-to-day and long-term content lifecycle. When planning your web project, plan for governance up front–not at the end. (Websites do not go to press, people!) Lack of governance creates a bad/disjointed user experience, creates risk, allows the competition to gain traction, and inhibits innovation. —Ann Rockley
Put authoring guidance in the CMS so the author doesn’t have to look it up in the style guide.
Start using hypertext in new ways to give your content deeper meaning and raise user delight. Here’s a beautiful example.
“In the Beginning” is an ongoing series dedicated to providing snapshots of how various designers were inspired to enter the creative industry. John Klotnia is a Partner at Opto Design in New York.
What is your earliest design inspiration/impression?
Cigarettes and Beer.
Looking back, I recall two distinct design memories, one influenced by cigarettes and the other, beer. As a kid, I found cigarette packaging fascinating. Clean rectangular packages wrapped in folded cellophane, foil labels and flip top lids enclosing perfect white paper cylinders filled with tobacco and lined up in orderly rows. More…
In the design world, quilting is often relegated to the same category as scrapbooking and rubber stamping. At best, it’s called “geekery.” But when I attended the American Quilter’s Society March show in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I was struck by how much quilting and graphic design have in common.
I’ve been quilting since I was about eight, so it’s bizarre that this comparison has never hit me before. I’ve always worked hard to reconcile my career choice in commercial art with my private passion for handwork. Nowadays, they are syncing up more and more for me.
In fact, one of the winning quilts from Lancaster is the perfect expression of what makes a “best of show” design—in any medium. Sherry Reynolds’s America, Let It Shine quilt excels in the same three categories that make a design project a success: concept, composition, and craftsmanship.
Concept
Stories are what give visual design dimension and capture an audience’s attention. It’s always where Thinkso starts with a project. What story are we trying to tell? What makes this story interesting/unique/engaging? More…
I lived with one of my best friends my senior year of college who exposed me to many firsts, most of them Web 2.0 related. Referred to as “THE Internet” by our outer circle, he opened my eyes to the world we commonly refer to as social networking. He convinced me to join Twitter before it became what it is today, forced me into blogging on Tumblr before I saw the value in it and even pushed me to try Foursquare—one of the most popular location-based apps, which has undoubtedly consumed a plethora of joyous and un-productive hours of my life (as well as earned me dirty looks from my friends at the brunch table.)
Today, I would shamelessly diagnose myself an addict, a user of well over 30+ networks. I blame said roommate for my obsession, but also have to give him credit for teaching me some valuable things about picking and choosing the networks that will bring the most value to an individual and/or a business.
Don’t assume that a popular network means success for you or your business. Just because a particular site has the most users or is deemed as the new “it”, doesn’t mean your business will benefit from using it. Research is essential before jumping on to any platform, established or not. An individual has the freedom to test and try things more freely, but a business really needs to evaluate what audience they are trying to reach and how other businesses alike are using that platform. Certain social networks can provide a useful outlet to interact with your audience while others won’t present any benefit at all. Pinterest, for example, works well for retailers and advertising focused industries because of its visual business model. Retailer’s can pin their products, which will then drive traffic back to their own site. Although fast growing and currently the talk of the social universe, it won’t provide much to a non-visual industry.
Working with Thinkso the past two years, I have designed marketing materials for clients in the financial and professional services sectors. Most of the time, these clients require mature, serious, and reserved concepts and aesthetics. Even though we do our best to break new ground and create differentiation, we know that we can push so far before we overstep the bounds of what is appropriate for the target audience. As an immigrant from Asia, this sometimes strikes me as odd, especially for a culture like the U.S, so open and informal in so many ways—and especially when contrasted with the design and marketing world from which I come.
I was born, raised and trained as a graphic designer in Taiwan, which is heavily influenced by Japanese pop culture. One such Japanese design trend is Kawaii, the quality of cuteness. Its root word pretty much says it all: “ka” means “acceptable” and “ai” means “love.” The Kawaii style comprises soft characters, cute animals and child-like ideas. It’s used to convey that something is cool, acceptable, charming and, most important, non-threatening.
The following is the story of a single lost, lonely black glove, as told by Brett Traylor. This, and the accounts of many others are currently on exhibit at New South Collective in Knoxville, TN. Curator Lisa Megan Forb, a former senior designer at Thinkso and currently an art director at the University of Tennessee, maintains a blog dedicated to these forgotten accessories. She invited Brett to describe the photo pictured above.
This isn’t a story about a glove. It’s a story of living, loving and dying.
Paulie “Thumbs” Marzullo was my favorite uncle. Not because he made the best gravy and meatballs in the family, or because he used to take me dumpster diving in Staten Island on the weekends, but because despite all odds, Paulie was a survivor. He was color blind. He had a terrible sense of fashion. And he had lost both thumbs in a tragic childhood shuffleboard accident. He never allowed any of these things to keep him from living life to its fullest. That is, until Christmas Eve of ’87.
I’ll be graduating this summer from Brigham Young University with a BFA in Graphic Design. My plan is to pursue a career in interactive design and digital publishing. Looking back on the career-related experiences I’ve had in college, interning at Thinkso in New York City during the summer of 2011 was among the most valuable. I came to work every morning excited to learn something new and thrilled to work with these friendly, talented and dedicated designers and marketers.
A big part of being an intern—besides getting coffee and watering plants – is learning as much as you can from the professionals around you. Here are some of the things learned from them:
1. Don’t design just for design’s sake.
Elizabeth shared something that will remain with me throughout my career. “Use design as a business tool,” she said. “Don’t design just for design’s sake.” In the four months I spent at Thinkso, I saw how well they used design as a tool to solve their client’s problems. I helped prepare a presentation for one client that was undergoing a thorough rebranding. Their existing brand identity failed to communicate who they are and what they do. Thinkso approaches branding as good storytelling; a successful brand communicates an organization’s personality, value proposition, and market position all in captivating visuals and smart, concise editorial. Working on this project, I saw how strategy and good design must work hand-in-hand to truly succeed.
It’s back to the basics for Mascot Madness this year. Final Four. Mascot versus mascot. For all the marbles. Here’s how they’ll finish:
#1 Jayhawks
According to their website, “The origin of the Jayhawk is rooted in the historic struggles of Kansas settlers. The term “Jayhawk” was probably coined around 1848. Accounts of its use appeared from Illinois to Texas and in that year, a party of pioneers crossing what is now Nebraska, called themselves “The Jayhawkers of ’49″. The name combines two birds – the blue jay, a noisy, quarrelsome thing known to rob other nests, and the sparrow hawk, a quiet, stealthy hunter. The message here: Don’t turn your back on this bird.”
My friend George sent me this article over the weekend. In it, the author sentences to death another of our world’s paper institutions: the business card.
I say, not so fast.
When sending the article, George, ever the artiste, bemoaned the potential loss of all his favorite printing tricks—mixed varnishes, metallic inks, die cuts, letterpress. And while I think most graphic designers would riot at the thought of not having this fun little medium to work with, there are many [more important] reasons for designers, branders and marketers—or any professional for that matter—to object to this trend. Here are just a few, in no particular order:
1. Business cards are an important brand touch point.
In a world where we are losing more and more opportunities for potential clients to have a tactile experience with our brand, why would we want to take away yet another? Just as there is no equal substitute for a face-to-face meeting, nothing can quite replace these tiny, tangible, 3-D manifestations of our companies. They are often the first interaction a client has with a brand.
Striking the balance between working, sleeping, and eating (very important) is challenging enough for any person in search of reaching a kind of professional nirvana. Add to that the crazy concept of spending time with friends and significant others—generally “having a life”—and we challenge the capacity of our already over-full iPhonecalendars. Being a designer, I feel like I’m always struggling to add one more piece to this puzzle: making room for creative exploration. It gives me such deep satisfaction when I’ve committed time to charging my creative batteries. Unfortunately this is the activity that is cut out of my agenda first.
For me, dedicating time to being creative means a lot of different things. It means time pulling out the pens, watercolors and gouache as well as thinking up conceptually interesting projects. (It definitely does not mean that I finally get the chance to help that friend out with a logo for his start-up that he can’t afford to pay me for. That falls in the “work” category.) I’m looking for creative side-projects that push me to refine my drawing, writing, illustrating and conceptual skills.
“In the Beginning” is an ongoing series dedicated to providing snapshots of how various designers were inspired to enter the creative industry. Paula Scher is a Partner at Pentagram in New York.
What is your earliest design inspiration/impression?
When I was only five, I used to sit and stare at the album cover for the Broadway show South Pacific starring Mary Martin and Ezio Pinza. Their heads were each fitted into the side of an anchor. I think Alex Steinweiss may have designed it. I stared at it because I didn’t know what an anchor was, and I wondered why their heads were shaped funny. I thought that they were cut out in a spade shape, like on playing cards.
While increasing visibility and traditional media coverage is a nice perk, you’ll get much more from your social media efforts if you focus on using it as a tool to build brand advocates rather than as just another PR outlet. What’s the best way to do that? By providing something that your audience finds valuable.
“Screw earning media. Start earning value!” was how one of the speakers put it during Social Media Week NYC this month (#SMWNYC.) In other words, the value that social media provides to a brand is something beyond a mention in an article or a retweet; it generates opportunity to build ongoing, solidified relationships with customers and influencers. And in turn, they will provide you with value—referrals, R&D ideas, a knowledgeable focus group, and yes, of course, increased revenue. But how do we do this?
A handy acronym to help you earn value from your customers through social media (courtesy of speakers @shaunabe and @saneel) is:
In our business, success is team effort. It takes talented staff members who work hard day in and day out, week after week. It takes loyal clients who believe in our work. It takes reliable allies who contribute their expertise. And it takes patient family and friends who support us through thick and thin.
Thinkso wouldn’t be the company it is without you. We are so grateful.
As a social media marketer, I spend a lot of time creating metrics reports so that I can see how well our strategies are working. A big return on the investment in social media is an increase of web traffic to your site…which will turn into better name recognition and trust…which will (hopefully) turn into new business and sales. If your metrics reports are not impressing you each month, you should take a closer look at your social media optimization (SMO). More…
I’m a news junkie. Always have been. I used to read the standards (WaPo, NYT, and WSJ) cover to cover. Now that I don’t read them in print anymore, the idea of “cover to cover” is outmoded. And the range of sites I visit has increased tenfold; I still scan the homepage of the Times but then I hop around sites sporadically throughout the day, seeking out the best coverage of topics that interest me.
Often, I’m dropped in the middle of a site, having followed some intriguing link on Twitter. Because the name of the source isn’t always indicated, it’s a bit like following someone blindfolded — you have no idea where you might end up after you click. More…
A couple of weeks ago, Maria Popova published a review of books dedicated to street art on Brain Pickings. I’m hoping someone will buy one of them for me for Christmas (hint, hint).
Street art is one of my favorite things to photograph when I travel. Here’s my first snapshot, taken in San Franscisco’s Mission District.
I was invited to teach a workshop on Facebook marketing for students at the Touro College Graduate School of Business in New York City. Since I’m still in teacher mode, here’s an overview of the fundamental strategies I presented: More…
Confab is “the content strategy conference,” put on annually by Brain Traffic in Minneapolis. Their 2011 conference was a tough act to follow, but this year’s gathering did not disappoint. The following is a download of some of my takeaways.
The following is the story of a single lost, lonely black glove, as told by Brett Traylor. This, and the accounts of many others are currently on exhibit at 
