Until this week, our department had been using Yahoo! Messenger, which incorporates a lot of features that we didn’t really need (stock ticker, news, Y! Voice) and was invasive to our PCs and workflow.  Our manager Timothy suggested the switch to Yammer, which our department promptly adopted. And… pardon the creative spelling here… we loooooooove it.

For those unfamiliar with Yammer, it functions similarly to Twitter: you update your own status, and it is shared in a feed. But you must have a company email address to join, and only people from your company are included in your network and can see your updates. Your company’s feed is private. Yammer also has a desktop application, so you can keep it open in a window and view your coworkers’ updates. For us as a company, this is incredibly useful for two major reasons:

1. Ease and immediacy of communication and sharing
2. Specificity of networks within that group communication

Ease of Use in Yammer

The communal nature and immediate communication of Yammer is essential for our company, where teamwork is important to our quality of work. For instance, in my Yammer feed, I can share a link to an informative article to everyone in the company at once, instead of emailing it out or messaging it to multiple coworkers. Or, if I need help thinking of a topic for some content, I can ask everyone for their ideas by updating my status.

In fact, I just did:

Useful, eh?

The interactions are instant and open, enhancing our abilities to work as a team and bettering our work overall.

Specificity of Networks in Yammer

Meanwhile, you can also share your updates with only specific groups that you create. If I have a great idea for my fellow content developers, I can update my status and share that update just with our group. Your Yammer feed quickly fills with information that is relevant and helpful to you, and you don’t find yourself sorting through noise.

So, what lessons can we take from this as content developers?

If you look at your website’s content as a communication tool for a group (which it is), you can apply what we learned from Yammer and use it to create better content.

Ease of Use In Online Content

Yammer gave us instantaneous and easy communication with a select group. Well, the people reading your website’s content are already a self-selecting group — so how are you making communication with them easy? Here’s how you should be doing it:
1. Write organized and optimized content. Understand how people read on the web, and write your content so it will actually be read by the people you are sharing it with. If your content isn’t presented properly, you’re likely to lose some readers.
2. Share things with your group/audience that are relevant and necessary. On Yammer, no one wants to read updates on what you ate for breakfast or how you are feeling. Therefore, you share content in your updates that is useful for your team. Likewise, you shouldn’t flood your website or blog with content that isn’t useful for your readers. A blog post filled with marketing messages will alienate readers who are on your site looking for content that is useful to them.
3. Require user action. To gather information on Yammer, you sometimes have to pose questions to your coworkers. Fostering interaction with your users through the content on your website is a great way to make that content useful for you and them. Don’t be afraid of asking questions in your content to communicate with your group of readers. Invite your readers to participate instead of lurk; use calls-to-action.

Specificity of Networks in Online Content

On Yammer, you know who your audience is and who you are directing certain communications to. You are, at the same time, a part of that group yourself. Writing content on your website for specific groups, but also as a part of that group, makes that content more effective. You should:
1. Write for specific groups. Obviously, your content should be of interest to your customers or people who might visit your website looking for information. But don’t be afraid to write to specific groups within that larger audience. Make it easy for them recognize who the content is relevant for in the title of the post or page — you don’t want your users to read two paragraphs of something they aren’t interested in and then bounce.
2. Write as a part of the group. Web users are becoming incredibly wary of marketing or sales copy. When you are writing for your customers, write as a part of that group — not as a marketer writing to an audience or a business owner writing to customers. Whatever the interest is that unites your group, identify it and participate in it. Create content that you would find useful as a part of that group, and your users will find that content valuable, too.

In the workplace, finding a communication tool that enhances your company’s efficiency and teamwork is incredibly helpful. In our case, that tool was Yammer. In content development, treating your content as a communication tool, and trying to make it the best tool it can be, helps you create the quality content for your users. Apply our Yammer-based lessons and start creating content that brings readers to your site and keeps them coming back.

But what about the inside pages? As a content developer or business owner working on a site, do you still consider every word carefully? Do you monitor the consistency of tone and message closely? As views of a page decrease, does your attention to its content, too? It shouldn’t.

A complete website will have finely-tuned content on every page. Here’s why: SEO companies know that usable, optimized content drives an SEO campaign and that users, like Google, recognize quality content.

Embrace good content on your inside pages!

Great Content Enhances Loyalty

Quality content throughout your site’s inside pages builds customer and visitor loyalty. The people who venture to your inside pages are also the people who will come back to your site again and again for the information it provides. Upon seeing valuable information in perfectly executed copy, customers and visitors alike will return to your site.

As a web writer, you can present your client as an authority by providing polished and informative content. Authority builds the trust of users and encourages them to convert into customers. Through authority and trust, you can continue to bring customers back to the site again and again.

Repeat customers will:
- Use your site each time they need your good or service.
- Spread the word about your company by recommending you to their friends and social communities.
- Cite your content as expert info on their own blog and in their social communities, promoting your site further.

Users of the site, even if they aren’t paying for anything yet, will return if there is a freshly updated stream of well-presented content.

Repeat users will:
- Cite your content as expert info on their own blog and in their social communities, building your authority within your industry.
- Be likely to use your company over your competition when they DO decide to make a purchase.
- Recommend you to those who are searching for your services.

If your inside copy isn’t informative, readable and organized, great homepage copy can fail to convert your visitors into customers or keep those customers coming back for more.

Content With SEO Techniques Brings in New Users

Good content isn’t just well written, informative, and perfectly organized. It’s well-optimized for the search engines, too. Using SEO techniques in your titles, subtitles and organization makes the content more usable for your current readers and helps you draw in new users from the search engines. Since these SEO techniques benefit the user and further your business goals, you can and should apply them carefully to each inside page.

Copyblogger offers great tips of how to create cornerstone content that search engines love and how to use SEO techniques that readers love. Lure those readers in from the search engines and keep them coming back with your quality content — that should be the goal of web writers for their sites. While your homepage copy catches a user’s eye and conveys your principle message, your careful attention to the content on the FAQ or About page could ultimately be what converts that user.

Well-optimized content brings new users in from the search engines. Informative content brings people back. Perfect content converts users to paying customers. Why would you pay less attention to inside copy when it has the power to do all that?

First, these two apps turn your computer and headphones into your own beat lab. Satisfy your inner music producer with iNudge and this drum kit.

Need some ambient noise to drown our your weekend-ready coworkers? Start any of these YouTube videos at any time, play them together, alone or in any order, and you get a harmonious mix that won’t distract you.

Every wonder if  Raclette, Duddleswell or Pressato were names of fonts or names of cheeses? Well… okay, you may not have wondered about that. But when you start playing Cheese or Font? you’ll realize how little you know about cheese… and fonts.

A little Chicago spotlight–  The Oprah Show took the flash mob phenomenon, inspired by this viral video, and of course, Oprah-fied it and took it up a notch. They taught the whole audience of 21,000 a dance to the Black Eyed Peas’ performance of “I Gotta Feelin’” at the first episode of her 24th season. Just check it out. It’s happy.

We love what this interactive agency is doing to sell their t-shirts. Adds a little something to the usual online shopping experience.

Ever think that maybe the research you’re doing on the web might be more fun if everything was written LIKE KANYE WEST TYPED IT?!?!?!!!! Well, now’s your chance to find out.

All of these apps share something that makes them viral–  they strike a communal chord. Whether it’s humor, joy, or curiosity, something integral in all of these appeals to a shared experience. You almost like it  more when you pass it on and that person feels the same emotion. Keep that in mind when constructing your own attempts at viral fame. And  if those don’t keep you busy for the rest of the day, we don’t know what will.

Well, Twin Anchors is exploiting the exposure online reviews can give a business. Especially for a company that serves only local customers, this sort of interactive marketing is an efficient way to use the support of your regular crowd to entice new clientele. Just like I might never have stopped into my new hood’s local rib joint if my friend hadn’t lauded their baked beans, other newcomers are more likely to give something a try if they’ve heard it’s good from their online peers. And your loyal customers are usually more than willing to sound off on how great your company is, without even being asked.

Twin Anchors uses review site functionality in another way– they actually read and process their reviews, too. After my friend left a glowing review of the service he received there, the owner emailed him requesting the name of the waitress, in order to reward her for her good work! Besides allowing you to give your employees proper credit where it’s due, online reviews can provide you with valuable feedback on customer experience. Customers who would never send a dish back or critique your service in person will describe their experience at length online. Using those reviews to adapt can benefit any company, established or up-and-coming.

Admittedly, review sites can sometimes be problematic for companies– if you get an aggressive negative reviewer, you may see some opinions you don’t agree with. However, due to the transparency of the medium, users of these sites can almost always tell who is crackpot habitual complainer, who offers a legitimate critique, and who is a complete phony. Most sites now feature a rating system that lets you note which reviews were in fact helpful and informative. That being said, never leave positive reviews for yourself, because readers will know and will not appreciate it. Involving yourself in the online review world  almost always pays off in business and backlinks. Just make sure you immerse yourself in the culture and etiquette of sites like Metromix, Yelp, and Citysearch, and use them properly and transparently.

Oh, and does Twin Anchors look familiar? That’s because it was in The Dark Knight. Cool.

Watch out for Two Face!

Quizzes: Tools for Building a Community Around Your Website

I am a bit of a procrastinator. I also really like answering questions about myself. (Yea, I’m honest!) And, guess what, I’m not the only sometimes-distracted narcissist on the web. When used properly, online quizzes are rewarding marketing tools that will increase your site’s interactivity and traffic.

Anybody that spends any amount of time on Facebook knows that the personality quiz is a trend that is here to stay. They just don’t get old. As much fun as graphing-calculator-required exams were in college, with a few mouse clicks, I’d rather determine “How many kids will [I] have?”, and finally find out “What type of Vitamin Water [I am]” during my down-time.

The world wide web can seem like an ever-expanding assembly of strangers—quizzes, silly or serious, tell me who I am, and then let me post a link telling everyone else who I am, too. An article from the Search Engine Journal explains that well-designed quizzes, suited to your brand and your consumer are “a great way to engage your visitors (most people will take the quiz, thus [spending] more time on your site and will be more willing to browse it further).” And, because they are “eagerly shared” (people like sharing their personality with online friends they have never meant in real life), a user will link his quiz results to each of his social media outlets, drawing more even people to your site.

Companies like Avon have already discovered how to “generate quizzes that are tied to their web site’s topic.” Thanks to their “What Skin Type are you?” questionnaire, I realized that I am, apparently, not taking proper care of my sensitive eye area, and Avon has just the cream to correct my negligence. Thank goodness! A quiz may be purely entertainment, informative, or both; its fun-factor is not diminished by it’s interactive marketing possibilities.

Social media flatters the art world perfectly– it connects knowledgeable and interested people with the events they want to know about– it keeps them up-to-date. It allows them to share opinions, critiques and reviews. It can expose up-and-coming artists with the word of mouth praise that builds a reputation, at an accelerated rate through the interconnectivity of the web.  Social media can build excitement and announce the opening of new installations– in fact, the Art Institute of Chicago added new pages to their website to promote the opening of the new Modern Wing, keeping Chicagoans informed of the progress and the events celebrating the update to the Chicago institution.

The Art Institute is also immersing itself in the interactive world by becoming a part of “a cyberspace partnership of world-class art museums, [and] officially becoming a partner of the online art video site ArtBabble.org.” If a museum over a hundred years old can be at the forefront of interacting with its patrons and fans on the internet, and spreading exposure to its works in different media, every progressive gallery should be emulating it.

The pairing of art and social media is beneficial for the form and the institutions that share it with the world. Social media keeps art fans in the loop and spreads the word to those less familiar with the happenings of galleries and museums. The creative and innovative nature of social media meshes perfectly with the forward thinking art world. We can’t think of a better match.

On our side, we’re proud to present such a comprehensive ecommerce site. Douglas has long been known for his incredibly large stock of purifying products, and translating that to the web in an organized and functional way was no easy feat. We think our presentation of his huge inventory maintains the tradition of friendly service, while also serving as an informational resource, just like the Douglas staff would in person at the store. Along with the new site, Ocean also provided Douglas with their new logo, brand identity and brand character.

And congratulations to our intern Lindsay for completing the daunting task of data entry with ease and a smile on her face! Check out the online store of Douglas Allergy Relief below, or at their new site. Read more about the launch here.

So by now, you’ve probably seen this video, which recently exploded across the internet. Maybe it’s the catchy Chris Brown song, or the joyful wedding party, or just the general gutsiness it would take to do this that makes the video so addictive– whatever it is, it’s already gotten almost 2 million views on YouTube. Here at Ocean, our office has been bumping to “Forever” all day.

The “JK Wedding Entrance Dance” is the first and only video posted by Jill and Kevin, a couple from Minnesota. And that may just be the reason behind it becoming such a viral hit. It feels real, genuine and legitimate, and not like content created by a marketing company and planted on YouTube to drive traffic to a website or spread brand awareness. People love to share it, the defining characteristic of a viral success, because it comes from other people just like them, who were looking to share a moment of their life. If you are trying to create a viral smash hit, remembering the importance of the urge to share and emulating Jill and Kevin in their genuiness would probably take you a long way toward success.

Who benefits from this kind of viral video, though? Clearly, Jill and Kevin weren’t pushing any agenda with their wedding day stunt, but just expressing their personality and sharing it with friends. This time, Chris Brown may actually be the winner. According to The Idolater, his song “Forever,” is “currently No. 45 on the iTunes Store’s singles chart, and No. 41 on the corresponding chart at Amazon MP3.” Around a year after this song made it’s original pop chart splash, that’s a big deal. It also makes us agree with The Idolator writers–  maybe Chris Brown should send Jill and Kevin a wedding present for the free press. You know, something nicer than a breadmaker.

Now, it’s easy for potential customers to find what they need– the properties are easily searchable by development, location, price or other attributes. The new site has extensive photos and videos, so users can really experience the property, too.

The Magellan experience has also been refocused on the online community of Magellan owners, renters and potential buyers. You can read the blog of Magellan’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Leila Zammatta, or see what’s going on from the Magellan side of things by checking out the News blog. You can catch up with the Magellan team on Twitter and Facebook, right from the homepage of Magellan Sells. If you’re interested about what’s going on in Chicago, take a look at the Chicago Life section of the site, where you can find events and entertainment throughout the city.

To make information easily accessible for potential buyers and current clients, Magellan invested in a renewal for their web presence, and our web design company was proud to be involved with the largest development company in Chicago.

For senior citizens in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois, you can visit the new site to get the information you may need about your medicare supplement plans. As the Medicare and insurance markets change with the administration, Medicare Supplements For You can help you understand the changing policies and choose which plan is best for you.  With one simple step of filling out a contact form, you start the ball rolling. Medicare Supplements For You will find and compare the best options for your supplemental plan, and supply with a quote of the lowest rates available.