Responsive design needs responsive people

For those who believe that 87.6% of statistics are always really, really accurate, then it's been reported that around two billion people will be using smartphones in 2016.

By 2018, one-third of consumers worldwide will do so.

Depending on how much stock you put into those numbers, the indication remains that less and less people are rushing home from their daily tasks to try and remember your website's URL (unless you made it easy) and plug it into their desktop's browser.

They want that content NOW! They want to look at it on their smartphone, and they want it to look GOOD! No pinching and dragging it around the screen to accommodate for small text and carriage returns. Responsive design = giving them the bite-size chunks of content and little menu lines so they can move around from "page" to "page" easily.

Thus, you see drivers with their heads looking down towards their lap as other cars honk them when the red light turns green; two lovers at dinner engaging in stimulating smartphone surfing as the apps (edible kind) get cold; people on auto-pilot walking along the busy sidewalk as they gaze down at their device, thumbs working overtime.

You get the point. You give the people the responsive design they expect in June 2015 and, with any luck, you'll get responsive people who will resize your brand over the competition.

John.

Hmmm, not sure, let me Yahoo that and find out

Some of my really fun childhood memories include hoovering to earn extra pocket money. What on earth is hoovering? Some strange English ritual?

Nope. It was just what we called vacuuming because one brand had totally dominated and owned the space at the time. (Not sure if people nowadays do the Dysoning but I haven't heard of it.)

And to find their website I immediately Googled it. I didn't Yahoo it, or Bing it.

Are there any downsides to your brand becoming a verb? Honestly can't think of any when people mention your name as they go about their daily digital communications tasks.

Here's a handy list of 41 brand names that are now used as generic terms. How many would you have guessed?

John.

Digital battles

No, that's not a video game above. That is Norse Security's real-time cyberattack map highlighted in the big digital news today that Canadian government servers were hit with a cyberattack this afternoon.

Most of us love digital, use it every day, find it very useful, make a living from it ... and then the flip side comes along with hackers, phishing, cyberattacks, e-mails that disappear and so on.

Useful/frustrating/useful/frustrating/useful/frustrating/useful/frustrating/infinity.

Are there any foolproof ways to protect your work, identity, accounts? No idea -- not my area of expertise.

But, as a back-up freak, my defences include the printer for hard copies, a notepad, a separate hard drive and cloud-based server back-ups (even though someone has those sitting in a room somewhere).

All we can do as small fry in the massive, ongoing digital battles raging around us it to try and be sensible, change passwords often, check those accounts for any weirdness and just keep plugging away.

John.

I'm not interested in what happened while I was away, please, stop asking me

Back in January of this year Twitter introduced its "while you were away" feature that pops up now and again depending on how long you spend checking tweets.

Granted, some people may find it useful. I particularly don't because I tend to use my Twitter stream as a real-time scrolling Matrix of what's going on in the world. While I've "been away" there have probably been 200 billion billion more tweets, and I don't feel the need to catch up.

Horses for courses as they say.

What is annoying though? The fact I've pressed "no" (in a very firm English polite way) when asked by Twitter if I find it useful. About nine times by now, I estimate.

So why does it keep appearing? I fully understand that it's not my Twitter, and Twitter doesn't owe me anything to use its free service and that -- maybe -- they're just still gathering feedback and stats on the "yes" or "no" responses ... but surely it can't be that hard for them to recognize my "no" choice on my account, and thus I never get asked again.

Yeah, I know = first world problems, right? But using digital communications to ask the same question over and over again is quite frustrating. I hope they tweak it soon so advocates who use Twitter a lot don't start to get a negative view of the brand.

(And if you like these blog posts you can just follow Herb Communications on LinkedIn and get notified when a new one appears while you were away.)

John.

Snow way to avoid spoilers these days

The news is all over the planet now about someone who may or may not be the above character who may or may not have had a particularly bad evening yesterday and who may or may not see winter when it finally comes.

It's extremely perplexing to me the amount of tweets out there last night along the lines of, "Hey, stop with the spoilers we're on the west coast!" or, "What?!! REALLY?!! NOOO! [insert spoiler screenshot here]" or, "Argghhh, I knew I should have stayed off social media tonight!"

Yes, you got it, you should have.

The chances of a major TV show event happening and not being mentioned on the digital channels are higher than Jon Snow learning his lines for season 6. And that's pretty damn low.

I hate spoilers. With a passion. To me, the whole episode is wasted if you know the outcome already. It's like reading the last few pages of a book. Horrible.

We all know that it's addictive to idly flip through your Twitter stream, or scroll down your Facebook page in case you "miss something." But lots of people like to immediately break the news of what they've just watched, and once your eye catches that snippet of digital info it's all over.

So ... just unplug for a few hours. What can be so important in social media that you can't tune out for a little while (if you're not watching a live event) and avoid all mentions of it?

Tape it, sit outside, listen to the evening or something. Go back in and DO NOT LOOK AT SOCIAL MEDIA OR NEWS CHANNELS and then enjoy the show, spoiler free.

Not having read the GoT books, I was pretty shocked last night. And it felt great!

John.

You don't need an invite for this digital party

There's a great blog post by Mitch Joel I found today called Stop Being A Digital Immigrant and it's well worth the read.

In my mind, some of the best observations he makes are:

• Certain companies now valued at billions of dollars don't have to transform to digital as they were created (or "born") into a digital age already
• A responsive website, a mobile experience, a decent e-mail database, a social media presence ... doesn't count as digital transformation, and it certainly doesn't count as thinking/being born digital. Those are simple tablestakes
• Not everything is going to work. Not everything is going to be right for the brand

Hear hear! I personally believe, too, that a lot of brands are nervous about trying some digital strategies (in case they don't like what people say, but guess what, people are saying stuff anyway so get in there and be proactive).

Don't sit around and wait for the "next big thing" because it's "now" -- technology is moving too fast to hang around. It's like waiting for a ski lift and you let 11 empty seats pass you by because you're waiting for the perfect one. Just jump on, enjoy the ride to the top, ski back down and then jump on the first seat you see and go around again. (And I don't ski by the way so no idea why that came to mind!)

I've been early to the party on some occasions (LinkedIn alpha tester, still love it and use the free version) ... late to the party (how long can you make a Periscope for?) ... but I'm AT the digital communications party.

Come and hang out. You don't need an invite.

And have a brilliant weekend.

John.

There will only ever be one Count Dracula

Sometimes an actor comes along and owns a role so memorable that no one really has a chance playing the same character after that. To me, British actor Christopher Lee, who has sadly passed away at the age of 93, did that with Count Dracula.

Growing up on Hammer Horror films as a kid, Lee didn't even have to say anything (in fact, he had no lines in Dracula: Prince of Darkness) to achieve that scary iconic image above. This is the Dracula that most film fans recall in their minds.

Lee also appeared in a wealth of other productions -- including The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Wars prequels -- but, in my mind, he will always be remembered for the Dracula cinematic brand.

Sometimes, in rare cases, something just works so perfectly well that it doesn't need any enhancements or tweaking. Lee's Dracula is one of those as we say, "Rest in peace, sweet Prince of Darkness."

John.

That time when your fridge runs out of cake, phones the baker for more and orders you a gym membership

The mythical Internet of Things. (No idea who came up with that general term but wish I'd got the domain name as it will be gold in the future.)

This article caught my roving digital eye the other day concerning the disappearing Internet and its impact on the Internet of Things. To summarize, the author is concerned about the erosion of security and privacy as more devices start to connect and interact with each other.

In essence, the Internet -- as we know it now -- will disappear and be replaced by a seamless global community of fridges, cellphones, thermostats, health trackers and cars (to name just a few examples) all shooting the shit with each other and making decisions on our behalf.

Brands are going to be jostling for position to make sure they're not overlooked for the $ in this immense amount of choice and options.

So you're driving home from work. The GPS phones your home thermostat to let it know you'll be 30 minutes so please put the heat on. Meanwhile, your health tracker has already contacted your fridge -- because it knows you last ate six hours ago -- to ask it if there's any cake available (by way of a bar code scanner). The fridge replies no, and phones the local baker to order some more ... but decides you've been eating too much cake recently so therefore also books you a gym membership and contacts an online book store and gets 30% off The Idiot's Guide To Tummy Crunches because it thinks you "may also like that too."

Meanwhile, all this precious personal data is in the cloud somewhere (which is not really a cloud, but on a physical server owned by someone) that may not have the best security protocols.

Because of that, hackers are able to get in there and mess around with your life depending on how they see fit.

And you thought it was hard to remember passwords these days?

John (Connor)

Herb Communications is now a member of HumberLaunch

After a tip off from the Mississauga Business Enterprise Centre, that led me to Enterprise Toronto ... I discovered HumberLaunch, an incubator program of entrepreneurial innovation.

And I'm pleased to say that after applying and pitching to their selection panel a week ago, Herb Communications is now a member.

"HumberLaunch is the destination for entrepreneurial innovation. HumberLaunch's mission is to cultivate innovative ideas into successful business ventures while promoting economic development.  Entrepreneurs are provided with physical resources, business advice, knowledge, skills development, mentors and networking opportunities during their start-up phase."

HumberLaunch is the destination for entrepreneurial innovation. HumberLaunch's mission is to cultivate innovative ideas into successful business ventures while promoting economic development. Entrepreneurs are provided with physical resources, business advice, knowledge, skills development, mentors and networking opportunities during their start-up phase.

Linked to Humber College students and alumni, in September 2014 they opened up their free services to the wider community of entrepreneurs and small business start-ups.

I'm confident that the mentoring, events and networking opportunities offered via the incubator will be a great resource for Herb Communications and its clients.

You can never stop learning.

John.

Ontario launches accessibility action plan

Hot off the news the other day that the province is encouraging business leaders to be accessibility champions, they announced today the release of a new action plan to build on the progress made since the introduction of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) in 2005 and to achieve the goal of becoming accessible by 2025.

The press release states, "The AODA has transformed the lives of people with disabilities by establishing standards in key areas of daily life, including customer service, employment, information and communications, transportation and the design of public spaces."

"Information and communications." Very topical. I was at a business incubator yesterday and was extolling the virtues of getting up to speed now on accessible digital communications.

With just some initial planning, checks and balances in place, education and the willingness to enhance the way that your website looks, it will pay dividends and give you a head start on your competitors who may be waiting for the next date in the compliance timeline to get closer.

Just do a quick search for "AODA compliance" on Google, read up on the subject and contact us if we can help.

John.

I started to write this blog post. What happened next will blow your mind!

No. No, it won't.

The above is a perfect example of a clickbait headline = something that is created specifically to tempt you to follow the link. You can even create your own one here. (And thanks Karim Kanji for today's inspiration on Facebook, it got me thinking!)

Most good writers can craft a headline that sells, or draws the viewer to a certain digital location. But that's 50% of the equation. It's what they do then that really counts.

For example, you manage a massive website. Tons of pages, all full of good, relevant content. But oftentimes your visitor won't enter through the beautifully laid out home page, designed with their usability front of mind. They may have been led there via another site using some clickbait or similar.

Do you think they are disappointed when they get to your web page because the promised amazing content is just not delivered? You look like a hash tag FAIL, and website visitors don't like to be tricked. (As mentioned in my other blog post, they now have an attention span less than that of a goldfish and you have to act fast!)

The trick is to look at your analytics and see where those visitors are coming from. Then add a quick bit of copy to the page in question (similar to a 404 error page) that recognizes the fact this might not be exactly what they were expecting (as indicated from the original, external link), but "click the logo" [or something] and take them back to the home page. (Or the real destination page that you had in mind to help them as being more relevant.)

It might take a bit of work to get those in place, but the extra step to show willing and get website visitors to where they need to be shows foresight and appreciation for a new, potential customer or client.

John.

Ontario's accessibility: it's not where you need to be, but where you want to be

On Friday the province announced that it's moving forward with an accessibility certification program that will encourage businesses to be leaders in accessibility. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) would guide the program's requirements.

The part of the press release that caught my eye was, "This program would help leaders stand out in their sector or community and promote the economic advantages of accessibility. It would encourage businesses to go beyond the requirements of the law and make accessibility part of daily life."

Exactly! Forget where businesses think they need to be at this stage of the AODA timeline, but rather where they want to be. 

It's time to show willing and demonstrate that, yes, you do want to make your brand accessible to those who may have certain disabilities. From a digital communications stance, there's lots of ways that websites can be improved to cater for those needs.

Customers remember those brands that go the extra mile to ensure the information they provide is as accessible to as many people as possible. Why turn people off when you could be proactively positioning your brand as the most accessible in its field?

Two stats from the release to think about:

• One in seven Ontarians has a disability, a number that will increase to one in five by 2035
• People with disabilities and their families represent an economic market worth $25 billion in Canada

That's a huge opportunity to cater for those needs, now, before your competitors catch up.

Herb Communications thinks this is such an important topic we have a dedicated service offering to help brands get started. An accessibility audit is always a good first step, so please take a look and let us know if you need help or advice.

John.

Anyone need a shi(f)t disturber?

I first met Carolyn Van back around 2009 when I worked at a Toronto private school; we connected as she needed a teacher panelist for an education/tech event, and we've stayed in touch since.

In her own words, Carolyn is a shi(f)t disturber, marketer, strategic communications specialist and community builder. She solves problems with design, technology and communication-based solutions. Carolyn has been a trusted advisor and educator to many from post-secondary students to senior level managers and technology start-ups to large corporations.

Her technology and entrepreneurial accolades, experience and knowledge have been recognized on various public outlets including CTV News, Global Entrepreneurship Week, The Globe and Mail and The Financial Post. 

Her digital presence and deep-rooted relationships in the start-up, technology, interactive media and design and investment communities make Carolyn a strong ally for organizations who are looking to innovate and grow. 

This shi(f)t disturber is looking for her next role, ideally:

• Preferably a technology company (or a role where she gets to work with technology)  
• Senior manager roles 
• Growth hacking   
• Marketing communications
• Strategic partnerships 
• Community engagement 
• Online and offline strategies and programs 
• Both strategic planning and implementation 
• Working with cross-functional and/or multidisciplinary teams 
• Encouraged to work on research (which will hopefully lead to the development) on the future of technology
• Work with a team of overachievers, constant learners and experimenters 
• Toronto-based but willing to travel

Feel free to connect with Carolyn if you are interested in chatting.

Have a great weekend.

John.

You've got the attention span of a goldfish! Or used to, at least

If you can be bothered to read to the end of this sentence, which will probably take around 9 seconds depending on the amount of words used, you'll discover that, in fact, a goldfish now has a longer attention span than you.

It's a bit of a conundrum because if you gave up after 8.25 seconds, you might not even be reading this because you have clicked off to something more interesting.

Think a wormhole just opened up somewhere.

Anyway, the clever number crunchers over at the Statistic Brain Research Institute have some data on attention span statistics.

Highlights include:

• The average attention span in 2000 = 12 seconds
• The average attention span in 2015 = 8.25 seconds
• The average attention span of a goldfish = 9 seconds

So, basically, in a nutshell and to sum it up -- a goldfish concentrates more on stuff than you do now.

Further down their page are some quick stats on how long people view a website page for and the per cent of words read on web pages with 111 words or less.

Thought it was a quick little fun fact for a Thursday afternoon.

Brands ... you have 8.25 seconds to get their attention starting ... NOW!

John.

Mary Meeker owns the Internet today

As Mashable comments, "The tech world only stops to gawk for a few choice events: Apple product launches, Marc Andreessen tweetstorms and Mary Meeker's slide presentations."

Why? Today Mary released her Internet Trends 2015 report, the 20th update of this widely anticipated research piece for those who want to understand and plan around technology. She is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers.

You can review the slides and PDF, or check out TechCrunch's take on the most important insights. Very interesting reading.

Another interesting report I chanced upon today in my search for all things digital is The Rise of the Chief Digital Officer. This one is authored by Peter Hughes, National Lead for Delivery and Operations, Deloitte Digital Canada and looks at the key considerations for driving digital growth from the C-suite.

As Peter sums up, "As the digital habits and behaviours of end users continue to evolve, what we call the 'new normal' will be redefined again and again. Organizations will find it increasingly difficult to be proactive as trends are increasingly dictated to them, not by them. Reacting is not necessarily bad -- especially if the organization has invested in a foundation that permits it to act nimbly and quickly. Being 'proactively reactive' requires the organization to have the right leadership, operating model, governance, people and technology.

"All organizations should prepare for a time -- now or soon -- when digital is not merely part of your business, but is your business. Those who start early and transition aggressively will be well positioned to drive powerful digital growth, create value, and play an exciting and increasingly significant role in shaping their digital future -- a future that should be led by a Chief Digital Officer."

Two excellent reports well worth diving into.

John.

Brand on the run

I've volunteered on my condo's Board of Directors for almost four years now, and although it's a lot of work, it's also very rewarding to serve the residents in the building I live.

Tonight it's our annual summer barbecue, now that it actually feels like summer in Toronto at last. Being the culinary arts fan that I am (hello? Herb Communications!) I headed out to buy the food and drinks. (Might not be as decadent as the photo above, but everyone loves grilling, right?)

I'm lucky to have a good choice of supermarkets in the locale but usually go to the same couple each week. As I was in the first one buying the basics such as pop and paper plates, I also decided to get some of the food there too, such as buns, chips and cheese slices.

I already knew in my head that this would not be my supermarket of choice for the hamburgers, veggie burgers and hot dogs. They sold them, sure, and it would have been very convenient to pick them up too ... but I was looking for a certain level of brand.

So, in the car, another 20-minute drive, more fuel and I arrived at the second supermarket. Saw the (more expensive) meat/veggie items I wanted and bought them. Better quality for the residents without breaking the bank, for just a little more effort.

Digital communications is a little like a barbecue. You might need the various "ingredients" from different suppliers, but it's worth shopping around and not cheaping out. Quality always comes through and makes a longer lasting impression.

You don't want to leave a bad taste in your customers' mouths.

John.

I, social media robot

On the recommendation of a very trusted communications colleague, I joined Solo PR Pro today. When you're working in the virtual world it's nice to have a network to liaise with and bounce ideas off. Plus there's a ton of good content to download that is useful for Herb Communications.

It was a very automated sign-up process: click link, enter details, confirm, get automated e-mail with log-in information and there you go. All done in around 10 minutes tops.

That was great because I wasn't expecting anything else, really. Had no wish to chat live with someone, ask questions etc. I knew what I wanted and the software robot took care of it all fast and easily.

It's not social media per se, but reminded me of Danny Brown's recent blog post entitled How Social Media Automation Can Encourage Engagement. Been following Danny for quite a while and first met him back in 2009 at PodCamp Toronto when we saw Chris Brogan's presentation. (OK, better stop it there, the namedrop alert is sounding.)

Danny always seems to have strong views on the issues he covers. In the above post, he leans towards being in favour of social media automation ... to a point.

He writes, "While these are valid points, they’ve also got business owners and marketers questioning the value of automation in the social space and wondering whether it’s destroying the fabric of social media’s early promise.

"And while I can agree -- to a point -- that it can be bad when it’s implemented wrong, I’m also a supporter of automation and disagree that it’s 'stealing social’s soul.'"

I can live with automation to a degree too. It's convenient and easy to set up. When insomnia strikes at 3:00 a.m. and you're tweeting away, do you really expect an instant reply? Nope.

I much rather prefer cybersilence to those automated DMs that are often mini sales pitches for something.

It's nice to get a real, related reply from a brand's rep or question back. Sometimes it takes awhile and you lose track of what the reply was connected to if you're a precocious tweeter (preeter?).

But SOCIAL media still rings true with my beliefs. Hanging out, companionship, friendly, relations ...

Robotic automation won't be able to replace those elements to the same level of success that a person "at the end of the line" can.

So, I for one, won't welcome our robotic social media overlords anytime soon!

John.

Love technology, just don't trust it

At a client meeting this past Wednesday I made the comment, "Love technology, just don't trust it."

Maybe it's the Mercury Retrogade, but of course my computer crashed when I got home that afternoon, had to have a new video card installed yesterday ... and I've been up since 6 this morning coaxing it back to life. (Windows updates take HOURS from scratch!)

As the updates chug along -- still need to install all my programs and software back on, what a joyful Friday task -- my trusty back-up laptop is handling this blog post just fine. (Herb Communications is now #1 on Google for the name. I believe the regular fresh content helps big time. Next step is to now get found for phrases and certain keywords that I want to encompass and be discovered for. That's more tricky, but not impossible. Done it before.)

Sorry, digressed there. I tend to go off on a tangent when discussing digital communications. One idea seems to flow into another, and then there's the Aha! moment. I had a few of those yesterday in a telephone conversation with a journalist. All will be revealed soon on that front.

I'm pretty old school. Colleagues know I write my meetings in a book on my desk, take a notepad and pen around the place. Why not just use Microsoft Outlook or tap notes on my mobile device?

Well, I find it quicker to jot shorthand down (journalism training!) and glance at my meetings book every morning to get a 5-second glance of what's lined up. It's just habit, but works for me.

Of course I have the tech back-up, the cloud storage, the external hard drive blah blah. Love all that, but don't trust it. One wrong piece of code, a bad update, a power cut ... and ... arrgghhh, I have no idea what's going on today!

OK, just making an exaggerated dramatic point there. Everyone has their preferences, and there's no right or wrong way to do business. At the end of the day it's about coming up with the correct solutions for clients, getting them the results they want and then, hopefully, the referrals will start.

I need to add carrier pigeon to the Contact page.

Have a great weekend ... and take the time to switch off.

John.

Don't just turn over a new Leaf, shake the whole bloody tree!

The Maple Leafs -- one of the most recognized brands in Toronto sporting history -- announced today that Mike Babcock has been appointed as their new coach for a reported cool $50 million and an eight-year contract.

That's eight new chances to win the Stanley Cup. If the fans' expectations have been high since 1967, that will surely escalate big time now.

Herb Communications hangs its hat on enhancing brands; tweaking, adding to, not taking over.

That is exactly the opposite of what Babcock has to do now. He has to go in and totally regenerate the Maple Leafs from the ground up. He has to ensure that those who make the cut actually want to win something and not just collect a salary.

He has to take over the team and be Mr. Maple Leafs. Something is not working right with the team at the moment, and it needs more than an enhancement. It needs a full-on overhaul.

Sometimes that is necessary. New ideas, fresh start, a relaunch.

I like those. About time! (Good luck, Mike.)

John.

Facebook just got a lot stickier

Facebook launched Instant Articles last week as a way for publishers (nine invited guests so far*) to create fast, interactive articles on their platform.

*The New York Times, National Geographic, BuzzFeed, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild.

This seems like an obvious way to keep users on the app longer. Make it more "sticky" as they say. But let's not forget that Facebook is first and foremost a business, and most businesses are in the business of making money. (The three mentions of "business" in that sentence is in no way a ploy for SEO purposes.)

"We designed Instant Articles to give publishers control over their stories, brand experience and monetization opportunities," explains Michael Reckhow, Product Manager, Facebook. "Publishers can sell ads in their articles and keep the revenue, or they can choose to use Facebook's Audience Network to monetize unsold inventory."

Google had already announced something similar with the Digital News Initiative, a partnership with European publishers (eight invited guests so far*) to, "support high quality journalism through technology and innovation."

*The Financial Times, Les Echos, NRC Media, El Pais, La Stampa, Faz, Die Zeit, The Guardian.

What's the future of journalism and publishing as more media outlets jump on the bandwagon for the ride?

Herb Communications has no idea. Only time will tell as more media pundits weigh in on the developments. I'll be watching closely and weighing opinions to help clients get a handle on what it may mean for their brand.

John.