cdharrison.com

These are notes I took during Brian Oberkirch’s session on “Managing Your (Personal) Brand” at the 2008 Webmaster Jam Session on 3 Oct 2008.

• Do Epic Shit.
• Marketing is not a cure all.
• Listen to your users.
• If you don’t believe in your product, who will?
• You are a minister of information.
• You can’t move up if you don’t stand out.
• Be yourself. Embrace your quirkiness.
• You can’t build a brand in Photoshop.
• Brand is everything and then some.
• Find out what you are not. Zag against it.
• Example #1 ~ 37signals - Writing, copy voice is important. As is simple, usable design.
  • Do side projects.
  • Used enormicom.com as an example of a side project that 37s created.
  • Re: Blogging - Blog More. Posts have more value than tweets.
  • Who do you know? How can you give back?
• Example #2 ~ 43Folders, Merlin Mann
  • Be funny. Be who you are.
  • Merlin created the HipsterPDA and it put him on the map, so to speak.
  • Re: Productivity: “This is like pornography for me.”
  • Subtle, stupid things.
  • You don’t know where the network will take you.
• Example #3 ~ Gary Vaynerchuk
  • Took over his family business. Started vlogging. Built up the company and took it to the next level.
  • Leave a mark on people.
  • Build your tribe a person at a time.
  • One-off actions carry on.
  • Be passionate.
• The Playbook:
  • You need a home (to orient yourself).
    • Text ~ Blog, Twitter
    • Code
    • Bio
  • External sites ~ rel=”me”
  • Consider using something like chi.mp (Brian’s side project)
  • Be where your people are.
  • Be mindful about URLs, avatars and usernames.
  • Make it easy to spread the word and the work.
  • It takes longer than you think. Be prepared to invest yourself.
  • Ask for help. It’s all good.
  • Not buzz. Building.

I’ll be posting notes from Friday and Saturday within the next day or so. Wi-fi was spotty at times due to the number of devices trying to connect to the Loudermilk network, so I stayed unplugged for a majority of the conference. (It wasn’t critical for me to be on.)

I’m really glad my coworkers were able to come. Josh and Phil walked away feeling more empowered and inspired to do better work. Jeff walked away with a greater understanding of what it is we designers do. Next year, I hope PowerServe can become more involved in the conference. We had fun with all of the folks who came out to hang with us at Fandangles on Friday night.

I had a GREAT time and met lots of great folks, and made a lot of new friends. When the Webmaster Jam comes rolling around in 2009, I will definitely be there in some capacity.

I’m not sure what the next conference I’ll be going to will be. I’m looking at the Future of Web Apps (FOWA) in Miami FL in February and South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) in March.

I’ll make more sense of these notes later:

People are trying to slap social stickers onto everything.
We need to blog. We need video. We need social networks. If you’re not thinking about the whole pictures, you’re just slapping stickers on your package.

Social media:wikipedia
Social Media is about people connecting.
Social Media represents huge collision of MSM change and social uprising enabled through new technologies
Pre-Filter > Post-Filter. Let the market decide what is important. Press becomes multi-media. And social media. Ex: BusinessWeek Outside the media establishment comes an explosion of sources. The formats have changed. Now blogs, video sites. Appealing content is brought to the forefront. Explosion of social networking. Word of mouth. Go from one source of content > through media ==> social platforms. Better news, advice from us versus brands.
Net effect: Open season on brand reputation.
Independent sites CAN rise to the forefront and conflict with brand objectives of companies.
Create a new architecturethat’s in sync with customer realties: a social architecture.
Readdress fundamental questions:

Business is socialising with purpose.

Don’t focus on stickers. Focus on IDEAS that stick and can be spread.
Politics and cause-related marketing offer a look into how this works today.

Example: Stand Up to Cancer. Collab between top three networks, A-list celebs and much much more.
Conversation peaked at announcement. Tailed off afterwards.
Virtual standup: get ppl involved online. Create personalized call.
Find right points of entry to social network.
Based on ideas not platforms.
Make ppl part of the content.
Get ppl to participate. If they are part of the content, they will talk about the cause.
Triggered widespread conversation.
Personal relationships.
Twitter was a HUGE factor in spreading info on the cause.
Efforts trigger massive amount of momentum.
Need to have a design program.
Social OUTRANKS CELEBRITY.
Social media played key role in raising $100m for the goal.

Politics and online advocacy
Ex: Obama
Represents the tv station of tomorrow.
Moving from sound bites to sound blasts.
“YouBama: The Citizen Generated Campaign”
24×7 social media that competes with and serves the press.
Channels fueled by new ideas and new contributors (Fact check video responses)
Twitter text updates. Media stunt. 62K followers. VP Announcement.
End game: mobilizing supporters, donations and votes. Obama “rocked the vote”

Rethink how you package your goods.
Social movement represents core v. fringe business.

Not just about the platforms. It’s about a new way of working.
Let people do the talking for you.

Is the decision to end support Internet Explorer 6 premature or long overdue?

There is no doubt that Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of our - web designers and developers - existence. Nathan Smith came up with ten great reasons in “Time to Drop IE6″. Dan Rubin offered “The Final Word on IE6″. 37signals, effective 10.1.2008, is phasing out IE6 support in its products. They all offer good reasons to end support for IE6. But we cannot ignore the reality of IE6: usage hovers around 25-30% as of 9.08 (1,2).

Can we truly ignore IE6? Could you afford to turn away 1/4-1/3 of the customers that walk through your door? I’m guessing most clients would say no.

So where does that leave us? Are we destined to support IE6 for years and years to come? I seriously hope not, but it all depends on your audience. If your site is catering to people most likely to be using modern browsers like Firefox 3, Safari, Opera, Camino, Chrome, IE7/8, etc., then it probably doesn’t matter if your site supports IE6. If your site trends towards a lot of IE6 users, well… you’re obviously going to have to support that browser until usage drops below a tolerable level. At which point, it would then be wise to make a decision on whether to support it any longer. (We have these same conversations regarding minimum browser resolutions to target.) The client and the client’s audience and what they are using on your site is what dictates what you should be designed for.

The idea of using ‘web standards’ isn’t so that designers can make kick ass designs that only the most bleeding edge browsers can render. Rather they’re more about making content viewable in any browser, regardless of its age.

The logical decision, then, is to use progressive enhancement in designs. If a site visitor is still using IE6, they should be able to see, at the very least, a “low-fi” version of your site. If there are only minor issues preventing a layout from rendering properly in IE6, take the time to write some conditional CSS targeting the browser, and fix it.

The challenge with progressive enhancement lies in educating a client that there will be variations in the design presented to site visitors. For some clients, variations are unacceptable. For others, they’re likely not going to care.

Maybe by March 2009 the browser share will change radically, and IE6 usage will drop to record lows. But I’m staying realistic. I might not like IE6 or the extra work it requires to support it, but it’s too early to start ignoring it completely.

1. w3schools - Browser Statistics
2. w3Counter - Global Web Stats

I had the idea to start a local group for a while now. Having read about the success of Refresh in other cities, I was intrigued to try and do something like it here in Augusta, Georgia. It wasn’t until recently that I started to get serious with the idea. Tonight we’re holding our first planning meeting. Next month, we’ll hold our first meeting. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. I can’t wait to see what this group can accomplish for Augusta.