We use several tools hourly at work – Basecamp for project communications, time tracking, and file sharing, our Socialtext wiki for cross project searchable information storage (procedures, lessons learned), our email, IM and shared calendars through Google Apps for Domains.  We’ve recently been adding a few other tools to our constellation. They’ve been sneaking in to solve particular problems. We’ve begun collaborating with each other in Google Docs and piloting Google Sites for some project specific collaboration (both available within Apps for Domains).

One of the questions that resurfaces from time to time is how to share status. We have a daily standup meeting and regular project standups (monthly). We schedule quick check-ins with each other throughout the month, and most of us work in a big open room (“war room”) where status is a nerf dart toss, spoken question, or IM away.

However, from time to time we get into a fit of wanting more formal status sharing in the form of a microblogging application. We have messed around a little with Yammer (think of it as a closed Twitter within your corporate network), Google Wave, Campfire (chat integrated with 37signals’ Basecamp product), and updating status in our GChat IM available through Google Apps for Domains.

Here are some thoughts as I consider these microblogging/status sharing tools.This is a quick comparison of the most obvious tools given our existing infrastructure. I added my own interpretation with bolding for my critical decision feature. There are lots more categories I could have evaluated, including smartphone accessibility, but I’m considering the main use case for our team being folks on computers, not on trains nor in cars….

I imagine most of the criticism of this post will be on applications or features I didn’t consider. I’m going to exclude Google Buzz right off the bat because it is not available in Google Apps for Domains and therefore not integrated with our other corporate infrastructure and because I don’t want to be drawn into my personal email interface at work if I can avoid it!  Other tools I haven’t tried are Socialtext Signals. Since our wiki is one step removed from our client interactions, it seems the wrong venue even if the tools are interesting. I also couldn’t get it to work in our wiki easily, so I ruled it out.  Please don’t confuse this with a comprehensive summary of all available tools. That has been done nicely by others (including  Laura Fitton on Mashable and  Dion Hinchcliff at ZDNet).

No one will be surprised by this conclusion: which application is better  comes down to what features you need. For me, my internal recommendation is for us to start using the “status” line in our GChat better before we jump to a whole new application. I’d like to see us adopt the habit before we adopt a particular tool. And, I don’t want another inbox or screen to check.

When Google Buzz showed up in my inbox, I was intrigued yet unsure. After all of the hoopla about Google Wave, I have to admit I never became a convert. Maybe because the invitations were scarce and so no one I wanted to Wave with was available to Wave with me, maybe because among my friends and family I’m an early adopter, so even if invitations weren’t scarce, no one in my inner circle would have Waved with me anyway. Beyond that, the lack of integration with my Gmail inbox was a killer. Another inbox for me to check….it never made it into my routine. I checked it this week, after weeks of inactivity, to find a message from a friend from…weeks ago.#Fail

Google Buzz, on the other hand, is integrated with my Gmail inbox, and in the last two days I’ve already used it more than I’ve ever used Google Wave. So far, I’ve enjoyed photos of a friend’s kid in Chicago, caught some local news – President Barack Obama to deliver the University Michigan commencement address, laughed at some goofy blogs and goofy statements from friends, and I encountered a book that I’ve added to my list of reserved items at the local library (Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto).

Looking at my Buzz stream on my Google profile, you will notice that it looks an awful lot like Facebook. Same mixture of photos and comments on photos and status updates and comments on status updates. And, since (as yet) there are no Mafia Wars, no Farmville, and no applications to help me figure out what kind of cheese am or what kind of cheese you think I am, it’s actually much more pleasant to dip into.

Yet, until close friends and family are complete Gmail-geeks like I am, I’ll still need Facebook to connect with close friends and family. And, while I am very excited about these tools for connecting with people I already know, I remain convinced that the most open social networking tools, like Twitter, remain the best for businesses to find new customers. Facebook is a walled garden, though becoming less so with its recent changes to its privacy settings making more content public. Google Buzz seems at least semi-walled. Right now I’ve got my Buzz kind of locked down until I decide how it all works.

I’m still exploring Buzz, but so far it seems exceptionally personal and less business-y. Hubspot has provided these recommendations on getting started with Google Buzz for your business. Take a look, let me know what you see, and together we’ll see how it develops.

At small companies and even large ones, people perform tasks outside of their areas of training. This is a natural occurrence, happening when folks cover each others tasks during a vacation, because of a promotion, during special short-term projects, and for many other reasons. A lack of formal training is almost a condition of participating in certain emerging fields, such as, say, search engine marketing and social media. So, how does a professional ensure they’re current with the existing standards? By self-study – reading books and blogs, by setting goals and measuring yourself against your own high standards, and by participating in professional development activities – attending conferences and obtaining relevant professional certifications.

For search engine marketing, certifications are available from professional associations such as the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO Institute offers a certification) as well as the Search Engines themselves:

• Google Advertising Professional
• Yahoo! Search Marketing Ambassador
• Microsoft adExcellence certification

Anyone managing projects in this industry should consider Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Relevant but non-certifying professional organizations include: the Usability Professionals Association. Read More

A recent Forrester Research report suggests that embedding video links in email marketing messages can double or triple click-through rates.

I have started to get email messages with embedded videos in my inbox. At this point, they all come from one source, my alma mater, Princeton University. In June, I received three email-with-video messages, one from the alumni association, one from Annual Giving, and another from Princeton Project 55 a separate alumni organization that gave me a public interest fellowship the year after graduation.

I’m not sure if they’re all using the same technology. Two are hosted on Princeton’s Annual Giving campaign site. The Project 55 one is a link to a video/slideshow on YouTube. So, although they’re all from Princeton, they are different in detail.

Each of the videos is a few minutes: the Project 55 one is 4 minutes long, the Project 55 one is about 4 minutes, the Princeton pause one is 2 minutes long. For this reason, they sat in my inbox for a while, waiting for the time I have a couple minutes of idle time and want to stay in front of my computer.

My connection to my alma mater is a deep one, with fond memories and deep friendships, and so these videos are actually quite compelling reminders of that experience. Surprise, at the end there’s a request to continue my support of the University’s work, of Project 55′s work, building on the positive experience recapitulated in the brief video.

So, even though I did not watch the videos immediately, I bet these emails are worth it for Princeton. Perhaps clickthrough is less prompt because the “investment” of time to view the video is greater. But, I’m not sure how extensible this model is. For instance, if I got an email with a video link from another organization, to which I was less strongly connected, I’m not sure I’d open it. If I got a video email from a business, I’m not sure I’d open it.

I’m curious if the stats hold this up – how people respond to these video messages. Forrester’s research suggests that the videos are compelling. I wonder if it is just because they’re new? I also wonder if Forrester’s statistics will hold by the time that everyone is mailing everyone else links to their videos, if this will just saturate. And, I’m curious if your gut on this is like mine, that these videos are suited well to applications like University alumni giving, but not from strangers.

You going to this year’s Internet User Experience (IUE)? This will be the fifth annual edition of a several day conference here in Southeastern Michigan, March 30-April 3. The schedule provides 3 days of more intensive workshops and tutorials (March 30, 31, and April 3) surrounding 2 days of conference fun (April 1-2).

No foolin’, the fifth annual IUE conference will be a great event for learning, sharing, and networking.

Pure Visibility’s Co-Founder Linda Girard will provide one of the keynote presentations on April 1 as well as participate in a panel on April 2.

April 1, 2009 – Linda will provide a keynote address, Bringing the Left Brain and Right Brain Together Online: Branding + Optimization.

April 2, 2009 – Linda will participate in a panel presentation Branding Search Engine Optimization and Usability with Karyn Kozo of branding and creative design agency re:group and Laurie Kantner of usability research consultants Tec-Ed.

Other Pure Visibility folks will also be in attendance, so if you’re registered, come find us and say hello. If you aren’t yet registered, you might consider doing so by March 10 to snare early bird pricing and a copy of Dr. Susan Weinschenk’s Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click.

Registration is open!

We’re hiring!

We are looking for an enthusiastic Internet search analyst to join our team. The ideal candidate will have experience developing, launching, managing, and optimizing paid search and organic visibility campaigns for clients across multiple search engines. Google AdWords management experience and Google Advertising Professional certification are important qualifications.

Details on the open position can be found in the Internet Search Analyst job description.

To apply please send your resume and cover letter before March 13, 2009 to: jobs@purevisibility.com

A current college student asked me how I got into internet marketing, and what a typical day is like at my job. In case it would be useful to someone, I thought I’d post it here.

How did I get into internet marketing?

Unintentionally, but I’m sure happy I did.

I have a pretty funny career path so far, which you can see on my linkedin profile. I have a science doctorate, but I eventually found it kind of dry and unsatisfying, and I needed a more team-oriented work situation. After I left academia, I started as a technical writer for a science software firm. I became a project manager when I went to the owner of the company to discuss how a project I was on was foundering. He supported me learning more about project management (and other things). Since that time I moved very gradually from project management for software to web design and development to internet marketing. To round out my “on the job” experience, I pursued professional certification from the Project Management Institute, earning my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2005.

My project management skills apply across fields, but I particularly like internet marketing because it is so quantitative and hypothesis-driven. It combines the science side of my brain with the people side of my brain. We can see the impact of implementing our recommendations relatively quickly, and iterate to make things even better. Software and web design projects take a long, long time. I suppose that I need quicker gratification and more data than I was getting in those two fields.

What is a typical day?

My daily schedule varies based on the day of the week and the time in the month. At our company, we do a fair bit of monthly reporting, so there is a monthly rhythm of analysis and reporting in the beginning of the month and implementing/following up later in the month. What this means is that the beginnings of my month focus on quality assurance for reports and having meetings with clients, and the ends of my months tend to center on coordinating next steps on approved items.

Our weekly schedule also has a rhythm. Monday mornings are internal time, where we as a company review the previous week and plan the coming one. We review budgets, deadlines, and projections.

As a project manager, I am involved superficially in many things. I answer client calls and emails, I coordinate with the team on deadlines and deliverables, I try to troubleshoot issues that emerge and clear a path so that the analysts can actually sit down and analyze things. I work with our calendars to schedule and move meetings (internal and with clients). I route and queue requests from clients and internal team members. I prioritize so that the team knows what must be done as opposed to what’s a nice to have. I have a lot of meetings and quick check-ins during the day. I also am on the phone a fair bit. I’m interrupted a lot. I suppose I also interrupt others a fair bit!

Director of Happiness and her pineapple

There are times when I moonlight as an analyst and jump into the data to answer a client question quickly. In those times, I like the focus and the numbers, but when I surface, I’m glad I work on a team who keep me honest, and whom I can help by keeping things straight.

And of course, I love my title, Director of Happiness .

On Tuesday February 10, 2009, Pure Visibility’s Michael Beasley will co-present

Introduction to Usability – An Interactive Discussion

under the auspices of the Michigan Usability Professionals’ Association (MIUPA). The event, hosted by Quicken Loans in Livonia, Michigan, will be from 6-8:30PM. Food and networking will start at 6PM, and the program will commence at 7PM.
The program will be led by Michael Beasley, User Experiologist here at Pure Visibility and current MIUPA President, and Dave Mitropoulos-Rundus, owner and principal of UsableWorld. They will lead an interactive discussion that will give you the opportunity to pose your own questions to two usability experts. You will learn about such things as:

• What is usability?
• How can I incorporate it into my organization? my projects? How can I deepen our practice of it?
• “Usability”, “User Experience (UX)”, “Human Factors”, “Information Architecture” – what’s deal with all of these names?
• What can my website analytics tell me about the usability of my site?
• How can I use end user tasks and goals to organize my website?

After an introduction to the basics of usability, Mike and Dave will open the floor to questions. You will set the agenda for this discussion through the questions you bring, so come prepared!

Location

Quicken Loans
20255 Victor Parkway
Livonia, MI 48152

Exit 7 Mile East from I-275. North on Victors Parkway from 7 Mile.
Enter main door, go to 3rd floor, meeting will be in the “Puerto Rico Room”

Cost

$10 for MIUPA Members, $5 for full-time non-working students, $15 for all others

RSVP

RSVP via email to events@miupa.org

Susan Weinshenck, Ph.D. in Psychology and Chief of Technical Staff at Human Factors International, is launching a blog and about to publish a book.

I have heard Susan speak a few times, at World Usability Day and at Internet User Experience conferences, and she is a terrific speaker, thoughtful and animated. Recently I have heard her talk about persuasion – what makes a website or advertising persuasive and user experience designers can improve websites and application experiences with this knowledge.

I’m always happy to learn from what Susan has to say, and I’m excited to subscribe to her blog. I’m sure it will get me thinking. I’ll let you decide for yourself, here are some recent posts:

• How do people decide? The Order Effect
• Undecided Voters? Not Really.
• Plot by Apple to convert PC users?

Here’s info on her upcoming book: Neuro Web Design: What makes them click? (Voices that Matter), available to pre-order now from Amazon.com.

I’m a fan of LinkedIn. Its helped me keep track of folks I value, and it lets me admire their paths as they move, advance, and change. Yet, now that most social networking sites are allowing me to aggregate my own feeds from elsewhere (think jaiku, friendfeed, being able to syndicate your blog as notes into Facebook, Plaxo Pulse), why should I or you bother aggregating feeds within LinkedIn?

I consider LinkedIn to be my primary professional profile online (due respect to all the others…it’s the leader in my book). The opportunity to enrich it was too good to pass up. As Chris Brogan blogged yesterday Drop everything run to LinkedIn now. What are you waiting for? Read More