What’s Delicious

Delicious is basically a bookmarking application.

Delicious was founded in 2003 and acquired by Yahoo in 2005. Right about then, development seemed to stop.

Maybe stuff was going on under the hood, but new features definitely didn’t keep pace with the times. StumpleUpon and Digg surged past Delicious.

In 2011, AVOS Systems bought Delicious from Yahoo. Good things have been happening ever since.

Delicious Stacks

One of the most intriguing features on the new Delicious is called Stacks.

Stacks are collections of links. You can select a picture and add commentary. We’ve grouped websites we’ve produced into a stack:

http://www.delicious.com/stacks/view/D8I3Er

The Future: Delicious?

I’ve long been a fan of Delicious, with hundreds of bookmarks saved. I use Delicious to share theme ideas with clients all the time.

So it was pretty disheartening when Yahoo contemplated pulling the plug.

Suddenly, the passion is back and the future looks Delicious.

Now, if only some enterprising web developers would buy Flickr.

You know what it’s supposed to mean.

Too Close

As content creators, we know what our message is supposed to mean and are tied into the process every step of the way. But the audience has no such prior knowledge.

The key question to ask: does the audience understand the message the same way you do?

The Problem: Confusion

Usually, the problem is not that the audience got the wrong message, but that they got the no message at all. Three things are the primary causes:

1. Too dense
2. Too clever
3. Too ambiguous

1. Too Dense: Message Packing

By far, message packing is the primary culprit in audience confusion. Back in the Mad Men days of advertising, we referred to this situation as:

10 pounds of crap in a 5 pound sack

Generally, audiences can only absorb one primary message at a time. The following media should always be single-minded:

• Print Ads
• Web pages
• Banner Ads
• TV commercials

2. Too Clever: Making the Audience Work Too Hard

“Just the facts, ma’am” doesn’t move the meter in advertising and marketing. But being too clever leaves the audience wondering what it’s all about.

Use of metaphor often falls into this trap. A recent Acura commercial features a Gold Medal skier in her competition clothing. In the commercial, stop-motion animation strips her naked, then redresses her in an evening gown. Cut to the Acura.

The connection is supposed to be that the Acura is like the skier – a beautiful exterior concealing an athletic, performance-oriented machine. Clever.

Maybe too clever. All I saw was some gratuitous nudity followed by a car shot.

As a producer, I always avoided clever. I preferred unexpected as a device. Upsetting viewer expectations, even a little, can freshen up the oldest idea.

3. Too Ambiguous: Huh?

My favorite example of Too Ambiguous is the long-running line for Cisco: The Human Network. What does that mean?

Messaging should always start from a simple statement of what you do, what benefit you provide or what pain you can ease.

For Cisco, they make routers and switches. They make other stuff too, but let’s not confuse the message. Routers and switches are their main line business, the products for which they are best known.

How about: Cisco – We Connect the World

We can all think of examples of too-ambiguous messaging, lines they made us wonder just what the heck was being sold.

The Fix: Hallway Survey

So how do we fall into these messaging traps? It is because, as the creators, we always know what it is supposed to mean. Therefore, the messaging always works on us.

It is an impossible task to forget what you already know, so as creators we must rely on others. A simple hallway survey usually works.

Ask your husband, wife, kids, co-workers or neighbors, anyone not associated with your project, “What did this mean to you?” What’s the message?”

The first thing out of their mouths should align with your intent. Guide your hall-survey audience away from executional suggestions – that’s your job. Further, it makes them co-creators, defeating their value as a disinterested audience.

Always remember that your real audience really is disinterested. They have no prior knowledge of your intentions, nor do they care. You have to grab their attention, make your point and make it memorable all within a glance.

——————————————————————————————

Photo by Max Westby

Cary, NC – In 2011, most businesses, organizations, non-profits and civic groups have Facebook Pages. Now, there’s a unique, branded way to control the link you share with your audience.

What’s in a Link?

Links are among the most important components of digital communication. Using proper links is a subject we frequently cover on Goodtree & Co: Blog.

On Facebook, links have always been problematic, especially on Business Pages. For example, our old link was a combination of letters and numbers and looked like this:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/CaryCitizen/124390674088

Not very memorable.

Unique URLs for Pages

Months ago, Facebook rolled out unique URLs (web addresses) for Profiles. Now, that same option is available for Business Pages.

Here’s our new Facebook URL:

http://www.facebook.com/carycitizen

That’s better!

Why It’s Important

Unique URLs for Facebook Pages are a giant step forward for business on the world’s most popular social platform.

• Easy to remember
• Simple to tell

This makes it so much easier for your audience to find you on Facebook. Easy for the customer is good when it comes to communication.

Now you can easily associate your brand in a direct way with Facebook and control how you appear in your web address.

How to Change Your Facebook URL

If you have a Facebook Page, follow these steps to change your web address.

1. Go to your Facebook Business Page
2. Click on “Edit Page” (upper right)
3. From the admin area, click on “Basic Information” (menu on left)
4. Click on “Username” (second item from the top of the form)

Be warned: you can only do this once. Make sure before you make the change.

Update Your Other Info

Don’t forget to update your website, business cards, LinkedIn profile and everything else with your new Facebook Page web address.

Of course, feel free to friend us on Facebook at facebook.com/carycitizen.

If you need a photograph of your business, home or commercial real estate development, please contact me.

Over 3000 views on Flickr. Rocco’s Pastry on Bleeker Street in the Village. I like to shoot food.

It’s another WordPress project, with lots of nice photography and even a video. Audrey Pettit contributed to the content.

Thanks to Deborah and Keith Ramsey and all the folks at GSC for letting us get our hands dirty on the new site.

Now, imagine a website where all the content is on one long vertical page. When you click on a navigation link, the whole site scrolls vertically, down to the content.

Hard to imagine? Check out this new website we’ve recently completed for Tri-Properties in Durham, N.C.

Cary, NC – On Twitter this icy morning, Google Goggles was trending (that means it was a very popular topic of conversation). I did not know what Google Goggles were, but I had to have a pair.

Google Goggles

Google Goggles, it turns out, is an app for your smart phone that reads bar codes and connects print media to the online world of information.

You snap a picture of something with your phone and Google Goggles shows you related data.

Things You Can Do with Google Goggles

Her are just a few of the useful things you can do with this free Android and iPhone app.

• Bar Codes – Snap a shot of a bar code on almost anything – a can of beans at the supermarket or a washing machine at Home Depot – and get connected to a world of information. Product ratings, nutrition, even competitive prices.
• Translate Text – Take a picture of something in German and it will translate it into English. Presumably works for some other languages as well.
• Magazine Ads – Some magazine ads now include data that can be scanned by smart phones. Get a coupon or more info from a print ad.
• Landmarks – Take a picture of a landmark and you’re connected to directions, hours, travel guides.
• Books – Photograph a book cover and find out about the author, plot, publisher and retailers.
• Business Cards – Take a picture of a business card and capture the contact information.
• Wine – Snap a shot of the label and find out what others thought about the vintage.

Android and iPhone

Google Goggles is currently available for Android and iPhone. Check it out:

Google Goggles

If you know of another similar app, let us know what you’re using.

NewsChallenge 2010 (Unofficial) Application Worksheet

Over at CaryCitizen, we’re considering an entry. All applications are submitted online, so we wanted a worksheet to help use sharpen our entry.

• Download: News Challenge 2010 Worksheet – .docx
• Download: News Challenge 2010 Worksheet – .rtf

Basically, we scraped the text from News Challenge and dumped it into a document. The .docx is Microsoft Word 2008. The .rtf should open up in just about any text editor or word processing program.

Take your time and polish your entry. Just remember all applications are due December 1, 2010.

More About the 2010 News Challenge

From the NewsChallenge website:

The 2011 Knight News Challenge is the fifth year of a contest awarding as much as $5 million a year for innovative ideas that develop platforms, tools and services to inform and transform community news, conversations and information distribution and visualization.

Knight Foundation plans to invest at least $25 million over five years in the search for bold community news and social media experiments.

For the 2010 contest, twelve winners were awarded close to $3 million.

This year’s challenge focuses on four areas:

1. Mobile: Seeks projects that use mobile devices to produce, deliver, consume, share and otherwise engage with news. The category reflects the fact that the mobile phone, with 5 billion units in use, has become an important tool for news.
2. Authenticity: Looks for projects that help people better understand the reliability of news and information sources. We’re hoping to identify promising ideas for helping citizens negotiate our oft-chaotic media world. How can we help news users better evaluate the validity and trustworthiness of news and information? How can we better filter and assess the credibility of what we read and watch?
3. Sustainability: Considers new economic models supporting news and information. New ways of conducting and consuming journalism may require new ways of paying for it. We’re open to ideas for generating revenue as well as ways to reduce costs.
4. Community: Seeks groundbreaking technologies that support news and information specifically within defined geographic areas. This is designed to jump-start work on technologies and approaches that haven’t arrived yet. Unlike the first three categories, submissions in this area must be tested in a geographically designated community.

Applications are due December 1, 2010.

Links

• NewsChallenge FAQ
• Q&A with John Bracken
• Knight Foundation on Twitter

Year 1 had been very good – 4% growth a week, 900 stories published, the establishment of our own ad space, 50,000 reads in September 2010. For Year 2, we decided to focus on making CaryCitizen sustainable. In a word, profitable.

That’s the theme of Hyperlocal 2.0 – making it a business.

The History of Hyperlocal

Wikipedia has a good definition of Hyperlocal:

“Hyperlocal content, often referred to as hyperlocal news, is characterized by three major elements. First, it refers to entities and events that are located within a well defined, community scale area. Secondly, it is intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area. Thirdly, it is [most often] created by a resident of the location…”

- Wikipedia [comments mine]

People began building local communities on the internet in the early 1990′s (before the World Wide Web) through bulletin boards and email lists. Remember?

Blogging hit the scene at the turn of the century (the millennium, actually). Blogger and LiveJournal launched in 1999. WordPress and MySpace launched in 2003.

The potential for Hyperlocal was there, but early blogs tended to be rants, personal diaries and niche communities.

Hyperlocal 1.0

Soon, independent publishers began getting organized to challenge traditional news organizations in the community info space. Church Hill People’s News launched in 20o4.  CarrboroCitizen launched in November 2006.

Traditional media outlets also experimented with blogging. The New York Times and Harvard were early adopters of WordPress. But traditional media has largely struggled with blogging in general and hyperlocal in particular.

Hyperlocals Gain Traction

Successful, independent hyperlocal publishers are emerging around the world. Blog engines may be the appliance that powers the enterprise, but this isn’t your Cousin Ralph’s Fishing Blog. These are serious news and information platforms, engaging large portions of their local community audience.

GoHyperlocal has a great showcase of some of the best hyperlocal publications on the web.

It’s taken more than a decade for community information to grow in sophistication from BBS to hyperlocals like Eastsider LA.

In late 2010, across the world, the talk has now turned to Sustainability.

Hyperlocal 2.0

Early adopters tended to be geeks or extroverts (I might be both). But Hyper 2.0 could be titled The Rise of the Digital Entrepreneurs.

The focus is now on how to monetize the effort and the audience. Without sufficient capital flow, no business can be sustainable.

Grant organizations, notably the Knight Foundation, have expanded their programs to attract more for-profit ventures. That’s important for community-based publications, because non-profits cannot compete with established media giants. This year’s NewsChallenge specifically has a category for ideas that focus on sustainability.

Hyperlocals have the focus (their community) and the passion (most are launched with sweat equity). GoHyperlocal has a great chart:

Chart from GoHyperlocal.com

The challenge of Hyperlocal 2.0 is to find the resources to take community news to the next level – equal players in the information space.

What’s Needed to Achieve Success

1. Manage Your Own Ad Space – It’s (relatively) easy to manage your own ad space with an open source platform like OpenX. Don’t accept outside ads – they only yield a fraction of the total revenue and can also abuse access to your audience with hidden tracking programs.

2. Hire a Sales Department – This is the missing piece of the puzzle for most hyperlocals. A look at most traditional media players in my area shows about a 50/50 split on labor for editorial and labor for sales. How many hyperlocals have even one dedicated, full-time salesperson.

3. Diversify – Banner ads will never pay all the bills. Hyperlocals can add revenue by selling related services, such as building websites and publication platforms for business and community organizations.

4. Video – Television news is on no former ground than traditional newspapers. Video content is costly to produce, but hyperlocals can create it for far less than TV stations. A well-produced viral costs about $1000, likely 20 or 25% of the cost of a TV news story. And the answer is not to fire the workers, but to make use of cheaper tools like high-def consumer video cameras and editing platforms like Final Cut Pro. The reporter has to be the producer and editor. That’s how you do it. TV stations are every bit as vulnerable as newspapers to the growing wave of community journalism. I predict Hyperlocal 3.0 will be titled The Fall of Local TV Stations.

5. Unlocking Sponsorships – Newspapers and TV tend to ficus on crime, mayhem and scandal. Hyperlocals do well to take the other tack. By focusing on the positive things happening in any given audience (schools, sports, government), the hyperlocal builds the community. This is strategically important for economic development in the region to ensure the information is not unfairly negative. Hyperlocals must unlock the support of regional business leaders by making the case for a home grown voice.

What Do You Think?

Are you running a hyperlocal or studying the evolution of journalism? I’d love to hear from you. Write to me at hal@goodtreecompany.com.