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High Impact Video - With a 5-Pound Sledge

Video is a great way to tell a story. The combination of visual and audio elements can have a great effect on the viewer. I believe the more entertaining the video is, the more impact it will have and the more it will be remembered. Videos can be very effective, even if you’re reaching out to a niche market. A great example of using video to reach out is “Wilsonart Flooring and Charlie the Cheapskate” by Spike and Dave.

Spike tells the story: “I have been in the flooring business since 1993 and Dave (the salesman in the video) has been in flooring since 2000. Both of us attended the Wilsonart Training in Temple, Texas a few years ago, since then we have pushed to sell Wilsonart because of the quality and the difference between HPL (High-Pressure Laminate) & DPL (Direct-Pressure Laminate)[flooring]. We were asked … to come up with something that would show how we sell the Wilsonart Flooring.”

How the two sell flooring is apparent throughout the short video. They talk about low price versus value, especially considering how HPL resists stains, spills and damage. They even go so far as to drop a sledge hammer head onto a piece of HPL laminate flooring. According to Spike, this is something they really do, “When customers come into our store we use the sledgehammer as a visual to show the impact resistance of the [Wilsonart] floor.”

From a marketing perspective, the video incorporates important elements of a successful video, including the “Call to Action” at the end to visit Wilsonart Flooring’s web site. It’s all done in a short, to-the-point, but very entertaining segment. “As an advertising manager, I think it's important to have something that people don't forget... so we created 'Charlie the Cheapskate', a story of a man that would shop around at the Big Box stores to get the cheapest price on flooring, until he was educated from a professional, on why one floor is cheap and another is not,” said Spike. I believe he did it right as the video he created could be used as a training tool for sales people as well as a spot to educate customers the difference between different kinds of laminate flooring.

Check out the video and see for yourself. Does it give you ideas how to use video in your business either as a training or promotion tool?

Video credit: spikegilley

Four Steps to Better Passwords

Many people glaze over when the subject of passwords comes up. I think it's because us IT folks tend to make things seem a lot more complicated than need be. Here are 4 easy steps to help you create better passwords to protect your personal information:

1. Make Your Passwords Longer

The concept is simple: The longer a password is the harder it is to crack. In practice, though, this can be intimidating. Instead of thinking of a long password, try to come up with a long passphrase. Something like "thequickbrownfoxjumpedoverthelazydog" is magnitudes more difficult to crack than "texasfootball."

2. Make Your Passwords More Complex

Length alone, though, isn't enough. Passwords should also be complex. By using mixed-case letters, numbers and special characters you increase the possible number choices a cracker will have to try before guessing correctly. "TexasFootball1234%" is much more time-consuming to crack than "texasfootball12345."

To help make your passwords complex, try coming up with a phrase which will be easy for you to remember, but hard for someone to guess. Try something like one of these:

• IW@sB0rnInTexas
• W@sIB0rnInT3x@s?
• W@s1B0rn@t@LL?
• B@n@nnaGu@c@m0le!

(In the above examples, the zero substitutes for "o")

At first, it might be harder to type something like the examples above, but after a few times you'll get used to it and it will seem like second nature.

3. Make Your Passwords Diverse

Having the same password for every web site and/or system you use is not the best way to go, security-wise. If someone were to get your email password, would you want them to be able to get into your online banking system, too? This is where things can get very complicated unless you have a system. Try implementing a pattern where you change a part of your passphrase for each web site. Perhaps something like this:

• For Gmail: GM_B@n@nn@Gu@c@m0le!
• For Hotmail: HO_B@n@nn@Gu@c@m0le!
• For Twitter: TI_B@n@nn@Gu@c@m0le!
• For you bank: BofA_B@n@nn@Gu@c@m0le!

The key is to make it complex, yet easy to remember. With a little imagination you can come up with something which works for you.

4. Change Your Passwords Periodically

Most corporate systems require periodic password changes. Most public systems, though, do not. Just because a system doesn't require password changes, it doesn't mean you can't (or shouldn't) change every so often. Regular changes help increase your overall security stance which will help keep your personal information safe. This is another area where a pattern can come in handy. Perhaps you can use titles of your favorite songs when you change. Something like this:

• January: Sult@ns0fSw1ng
• April: M0t0rC1tyM@dh0use
• July: NutbushC1tyL1m1ts
• October: Sp1r1t0fTheR@d10

If you combine this pattern of changing with the pattern of diversity, you have a pretty good combination of diversity and longevity.

If you have any methods for making complex passwords work for you, please feel free to share them. Just don't post your real passwords here, you never know who's watching ...

Photo credit: mikebaird

Demystifying Change Management

Sometimes, IT people will mention "Change Management" when discussing deadlines and schedules relating to the IT part of web site deployment. To some, this can conjure up visions of "Mordac the Preventer of Information Services" from the Dilbert comics. It's really not like that.

Wikipedia informs us that "The objective of Change Management in this context [Information Technology] is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all changes to controlled IT infrastructure, in order to minimize the number and impact of any related incidents upon service."

Change Management isn't some top secret bureaucratic plot to keep change from happening in IT. It's all about managing change. Think of it as an editorial board for IT stuff.

A Little History

When IT departments start out, they are usually small and agile. It's easy to make changes and coordinate those changes with the other person (or two) in the office so other systems or processes aren't adversely affected. As the departments grow, coordination becomes more complicated. At some point, changes are made in one system which cause another system to malfunction. It's not done intentionally nor out of incompetence; it's just that better coordination and accountability is needed to avoid problems.

This is where change management comes in.

In many organizations, here's how the process works:

1. Someone, usually outside of the IT Department, requests changes to a process or application.
2. The IT person(s) assigned to the project make the required change in a test system.
3. The requester tests the changes in the test system. If the changes work properly, the acceptance is documented. Otherwise the process goes back to step 2.
4. The changes are presented at a change management meeting. This is done to allow others to learn about the change and speak up if they believe the new change will adversely affect other systems.
5. If there are no objections, the changes are approved in put into production on the "real" system. Otherwise, more testing is done to make sure no adverse affects will occur.
6. The requester does a final test and acceptance is documented or the process goes back to step 2.

There is usually paperwork involved which is kept on hand for a predetermined period. In some organizations those documents are reviewed by auditors on an annual or semi-annual basis.

Testing is extremely important and probably the most important part to the Marketing people. When asked, test promptly and thoroughly and respond. This will make the process go much more smoothly and changes will get done more quickly. Having a formatlize procedure in place to document testing an acceptance is good for Marketing too, because it helps ensure things aren't rushed into place before they are ready.

Change management processes vary from organization to organization. Marketing folks: get with your IT counterparts and ask them about change management in your company and how you can help them get through the process more smoothly. What you learn will benefit everyone.

Image credit: apesara

Do You Know Where Your Menu Is Going? - Stuff I Learned At PubCon South

On March 12th, Benu Aggarwal of Milestone Internet Marketing, Michael Martin of Googleandblog.com and Ted Ulle of the MEWS Group gave great presentations on the "SEO Sight Design and Deployment: Information Architecture" panel. Although all the presenters gave up some good information, I want to focus on Ted's presentation entitled "The Main Menu."

The information Ted presented really got me thinking about how we look at data structure and menu building. It was especially applicable to me. We are getting ready to redo our corporate Intranet and very much need to come up with an improved menu structure, not only for now but to anticipate future growth.

He pointed out that if you give people too many choices, they may choose nothing at all. I read that a couple years ago in Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell (a good read I recommend checking out). I think that may be part of the problem people have finding content on our Intranet - too many choices in the menus. It's something worth checking out.

Specifically Ted recommended:

• only 6 items to choose from in a menu, with an absolute maximum of 7.
• not to make your menu like your org chart (though this may not apply for corporate Intranets)
• to forget the "3-Click" rule (which asserts that users will only click 3 times to find a certainly piece of information before they give up).

3 Clicks Is Gone?

The "3-Click" rule has been around a long time. The opinion is now that it's OK for content to be more than 3 clicks away, provided you let your users know they are on the right track to finding what they want. Ted said to think "Information Scent" in making sure your users know they aren't wasting their time and are headed in the right direction to find what they're looking for.

Menu Building - Old School

The part of the presentation which really got my attention was what I call "Menu

Building with Index Cards." Basically, you start by putting all of your web site's "links" or pieces of information on 3x5 cards. You then create no more than 6 "labels" which would represent your main menu choices. Then you sort all the cards into piles corresponding with the labels. After you revise and resort a couple of times, have a disinterested third party look for information you ask them to find in your cards. I have to admit, I am quite intrigued by this and I will give it a try when it comes time to do our Intranet menus.

Lastly, Ted recommended reading Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville. I got my copy on Monday and have already read through the first five chapters. I can already see where this will help me design better sites in future.

Do you know where your menu is going? Can your visitors figure it out? Are you giving them too many choices and, maybe, causing them to click off your site? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Image credits: Editor B & dweekly