Splash Web Effects

I was looking at my iPhone the other day when I was in a particularly bad dead zone, and thought to myself “Wow, I don’t have much to do that’s not Internet-required”. Other than a few games and stanza, it appears most of my apps are simply an interface for a single website.

As I thought about the implications of this, I realized that the line separating webapps and desktop applications has blurred. I use mint.com to manage my finances, and facebook to manage my social circle. I use google docs to deal with my documents and gmail.com to manage my e-mail. All of it, since gmail can check other POP-enabled accounts.

Now, to look at it another way- there are many thousands of apps in the App Store in iTunes, but the Pre and Blackberry have disappointingly low figures. Of course, the iPhone has been around longer than the Pre, and it has a larger, more technically-capable cult of followers than the business-centric Blackberry, but the real reason is that developers simply haven’t had enough time to learn an entirely new SDK, and why would they want to?

The simple solution is to develop an application that is cross-device compatible- a webapp. Something they have only to fire up their browsers to get to, it increases the user base of your application to anyone with a portable connection. The roadblock? Session Management.

The biggest problem with the iPhone, Pre and Blackberry (less so with android phones, but a problem nonetheless) is that it can’t carry data past more than a few webpages. The choice to use a webapp is simple when you don’t have to login- you can store everything in the URL variable scope. When users have to access personal information, or verify their identity (for purchasing things perhaps?) the choice to use cookies, or session variables is one that is difficult to make. When you want your users to spend time using your site- increasing their exposure to your brand and maximizing revenue potential- you need to bite the bullet and write a device-specific application. When you only need to provide data in short bursts (like twitter, or meetways) you can afford to make a smaller, data-optimized version of your website.

Establishing a web presence is something done over time, and requires a lot of time. Fortunately, a lot of that time is spent doing something fun- talking about what you know.
Essentially, to attain credibility on the internet, you have to talk a lot. You have to have an opinion that is slightly not mainstream, but not so crazy as to be insanely radical. Read what other people are saying, and form an opinion, then share that opinion as much as possible, consistently and widely.

Here are some good steps:

1. Open a Gmail account. Honestly, it’s the best web mail out there and it’s integrated with all the Google services. It’s also a good habit to just be logged into it all the time, as you can access your chat, calendar and documents easily.
2. Convert as much stuff to the “cloud” as you can. Being location-independent will allow you to not only become more flexible with how you work, but will allow you to seamlessly disperse content across several mediums easily.
3. Get social networking logins, and then USE THEM. Integrating everything is a smart move- you can do this using Pageonce or another social media aggregation tool- but you want to integrate as much of this as possible. Make your twitter account update facebook- have your linkedin updated once a week at least. Make sure you follow fewer people on twitter than follow you- you can maintain several accounts to keep this up.
4. Generate content on a consistent basis. This is important, place reminders in your calendar to blog at least twice a week. have a 2-3 hour alarm to remind yourself to twitter. These things may seem like small, useless steps, but what you are doing here is generating content. I cannot stress this enough, the more content you produce, the more people will find it and spread it.
5. Spread other people’s content. Most people are tracking how their content is spread, and doing so brings them to your content. “Hey, this guy (dis)agrees with me, I wonder what else he has to say” is something people tend to do, and they also tend to return the favor. When I get linked somewhere, I always mention it, with thanks, and usually have a comment about their work.
6. Keep your social content and your professional content SEPARATE. Making your friends aware of your professional blogs is OK, but making your clients aware of your tequila binge last night isn’t. Make sure you always keep work and play separate, or clients will get mixed messages.
7. Stay on subject – or risk losing your audience. You might find keyboard cat hilarious, but your clients may become irritated. Establishing personality is great, or recommending a product- perfectly acceptable. Even being funny is encouraged on your blogs, as it separates you from the pack- but make sure that 90% of your posts have something to do with the original subject of the blog/website.
8. Make sure you have a Digg, Reddit, Delic.io.us, Slashdot, and Google Reader account so you can not only stay on top of industry news, but can establish yourself in the comments sections of these pages. Just don’t get caught in a politically charged flame war.
9. Podcast. I don’t care if you do it weekly, monthly or bi-annually, but do it. Make a video and audio version so people can take it with them, and you need to have a gimmick. If whatever it is you do is a fast-changing business, you need to do it more often, and don’t be surprised if people don’t listen to the back episodes(does anyone do that for TWiT?)- after all that info is probably outdated.
10. Respond to e-mails, comments and accusations publicly. This is not only a cheap cop-out for content, but can create valuable discussion that will usually be talked about. It also inspires people to blog, who will usually link to the original post they got the idea from(tho not always.)
11. Keep tabs on yourself. Ego-Google yourself frequently, and keep track of your comments being replied to, blog post linkbacks and make yourself a few Google news alerts with your name, blog name, website name and company names in them- and set it to as-it-happens until you’re getting at least 10 e-mails a day. This is when you know you’ve succeeded.

With the release of so many smartphones on the market today that actually encourage web-surfing on the phone or PDA, a viable marketing strategy has emerged.

Launching a website that is not only touch-phone friendly but UI-specific can make your organization stand out as a large, professional, agile institution.

Remember, a globalized marketing strategy is greatly in the details and you are embarking on a venture that is inherently global. (This leads to a whole lot of minimalist design schemes…) Globalization is not only expressed as either segmenting your experience to locals, or creating an effective human-centered global strategy that transcends culture; it is a process that is open to the highest of critique and the biggest problems. You have to take into account taboo in hundreds of locations while continuing to maintain context-neutral messages.

But you back yourself into a corner here. Most people do not have the manpower to maintain either an intracate marketing strategy that maintains the power of globalization or the power to create individual web portals to deal with the entire world. Especially when you are not present in many of the markets you are advertising to(but don’t want to damage them as you hope to expand there one day).

The answer: Cross Device platforming, while maintaining static content. In many markets, your website is to be viewed on a device the size of the user’s hand. Many non-standard browser sizes and device limitations will neuter your ablity to speak to the individuals that may not even have a home computer to view your website on, or simply do not have time to pull up their laptop when they need to find someone nearby with your services.

The time is now, optimise your HTML and server-side languages to use multiple CSS sheets, then condition them to the browser, device type and size appropriate. This creates a manageable website where certain content can be hidden with things like display:none in some devices/locales and can be shown in others.

When designing such an interface: rememeber what your users are trying to do most of the time on mobile devices. They are looking for directions, to buy something and pick it up on the way, they are looking for relavant times or reviews of your services. They aren’t looking to load a lot of copy or any high-definition pictures, remember to K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid.

I recently had the fortune(good or bad?) to fill a few internships at a company I worked for. I decided to post an entry on craigslist.

I made it a pretty open-enrollment, no school requirements, no previous experience, capped at one year experience. I was looking for a few eager young marketing break-ins like I was (not that I’m not eager, young or a break-in myself.) to teach the ropes and get cheap labor out of.

Well… my post went locally viral.

I am not sure why, or how, but every community college professor and abuser of linkedin found my craigslist post and ran with it, telling everyone they knew. After about a day, HUNDREDS of local applicants e-mailed me their desperate attempts to get an internship. I had to set up e-mail filters, and was intensely grateful I had given my Google voice number instead of my personal cell.