Tag Archives: Consulting

Set It Free!

Another late post, I know. It’s this pesky business of trying to do some work. I particularly like it when the work is the stuff I do for free. Yep. I think everyone should have at least one pro-bono account in their roster and I’m drinking my own Kool-Aid on that.

My client is in the process of building and launching a new website. This has been fun – a white sheet of paper, SEO built in from the ground up, lots of open minds (OK, maybe that’s not your idea of fun but I’m digging it). But the real fun is yet to begin since we’re just starting to populate the site with information.

“Where is this all going to come from?”, she wondered on our call. That’s when we talked about a pretty significant paradigm shift she, like most people in digital, was going to have to make.

I told her she had to stop thinking of the site as hers or her organization’s. Instead, realize that it belongs to your community – your users, your members, and those who you want to become part of either of those two groups.  We went on to talk about link-building, guest-blogging, and how “viral” doesn’t mean vaccinations.

The important thing here is all businesses have to embrace the Chinese proverb on setting things we love free to see if they return.  By opening up your site to the conversations, you don’t lose control – you gain engagement.

Thoughts?

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Hurt vs. Injured

Graph of typical Operating System placement on...

Let’s play pretend.  Pretend there is a team of people working on a web project together.  The team has reached the very end of the build and is hoping to get it launched soon.  Suddenly, one sector of the team decides they don’t like the way something looks and proposes a change.   Making the change might make the product look nicer but it won’t affect the way it works.  Nothing is broken – it’s just not pretty.  With deadlines looming, do you make the change? Continue reading

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Snow

Snowfall on trees, Germany

We had our first big dump of the season here over the weekend. I’m not a fan of snow or winter in general but putting aside my general disdain for the lack of golf and hazardous driving snow brings, it is kind of pretty.
As I was watching it fall Saturday night, I recalled the old saw about no two flakes being alike. While this is apparently not the case, it make me think of something as we wind down the year. Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud