(You know we mean it because we have a nice shiny "contact us" button)
This week I was able to get a sneak peek of Lila, a web application that uses a completely new approach to Internet navigation and collaboration. Instead of pages, it uses spaces. It’s a hard concept to get at first. As I watched the demonstration from the Danish creators, I was a bit confused and slightly frustrated at first. But by the end of the presentation, I was completely into it. Here’s my best explanation:
When you go to a Lila space on your web browser, you see a large white canvas with a few objects on it. There is a control bar that allows you to zoom in and out, manipulate, and navigate the space. If you have worked with Adobe Illustrator, Lila is somewhat similar to that. Except that the objects on the workspace can be videos (even walls of videos) or clouds of pictures with descriptions and connections to other related areas on the space.
Rasmus Groth, the CEO, described moving between the areas of content as a “walk,” instead of a click. Compared to a normal website, Lila feels completely chaotic and a little overwhelming. Once you get used to the idea, however, it is an intuitive and exciting way to explore information. To help recent initiates, the creator of a Lila page can select scenes, or camera angles, that he wants a visitor to see. The Scenes can be ordered and a visitor can navigate through them using the control bar. The effect is something like a PowerPoint presentation, but at any moment you can zoom out and get a bird’s eye view of the whole shebang.
Sometime in 2009, Lila should be open to the public. For a small monthly fee, a user could set up spaces and upload content, which Lila hosts. Groth admits freely that he’s not trying to change the world all at once, but this is a good first step. Lila will not likely take over the market for content management systems and website building software, but it has some specific applications that are exciting.
At Advent Creative, we’re particularly interested in using it to collaborate with clients on creative proofs. For instance, we could set up a space for each of our clients. Then, when we want to get feedback on some website mockups, we just send them the URL. The client could draw on the proofs, upload examples of what they want, and give final approval. We’re based in Utah, but we have clients in Bangkok and Hong Kong, so this could be perfect for us.
Groth, an architect by trade, started thinking of Lila because of similar problems he had with blueprints and working with groups in Poland. Lila is also very well adapted to museums, art displays, and high interactive web ventures. I can’t imagine it would ever be used for e-commerce, but maybe one day. There is a thrilling feeling when you go to somebody’s Lila space that’s akin to voyeurism. It feels like you snuck into somebody’s office and you’re riffling through their desk.
After the demonstration, Groth navigated us back to a normal web page. It felt so stale and static that it started to give me claustrophobia. Lila is an exciting application that if used correctly could significantly change the way we interact on the world wide web. We’ll be giving it a test run in February, and we’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
Work stopped this morning at Advent as we watched the inauguration of Pres. Barack Obama along with pretty much the rest of the world. I could write a lot about the event, but since this is the official Advent blog I’m just going to point out one surprising and oddly assuring phenomenon that occurred today in conjunction with the ceremony: The launch of the new White House YouTube Channel.
It only has two videos up so far, and only a handful of subscribers, but it means more as a symbol than anything else. As the president said in his address this morning, the world has changed and we need to change with it.
Social media and Internet marketing, which normally get lumped into the general category of search engine optimization (SEO), are changing the way we communicate, collaborate and network. The world certainly is changing and it appears the White House gets it.
We at Advent have had our very own YouTube channel, and I’m proud to say that for a few hours we had more subscribers than the White House. (In writing this the White House channel has tripled it’s subscribers.)
The launch of the site sends a nice message on the first official day of the new administration. It’s a harbinger of openness and two-way communication. Still, there are several ways that it could get screwed up quick. Just in case Pres. Obama is reading our blog, here are a few things he should avoid:
1. Have a no B.S. rule
One of the most appealing ideas in political communication is the ability to take your message directly to people without having to pass the media gatekeepers. Keep it free of B.S. and propaganda and social media will provide that opportunity. If transparency is the goal, I will watch the channel faithfully. If I get the feeling, however, that I’m being overly manipulated, then I’ll go back to watching C-SPAN. (Please don’t make me do that. C-SPAN is so boring.)
2. Don’t always be serious
Make it fun. Social media is a much more flexible and freewheeling medium than its predecessors. The White House has arguably the most serious issues in the world to deal with, but that doesn’t mean you have carte blanche to be stodgy. Follow the example of Nancy Pelosi, who put a RickRoll prank video on the House of Representative’s YouTube channel.
3. Give us something new
Don’t show us all the same stuff we can find on the 24-hour news cycles. Show us something intimate or exclusive. Or, use the channel to give the full context of a gaffe from Joe Bidden, and explain what he really meant to say. It’s up to you, but don’t let it get redundant and stale.
4. Respond to posts
YouTube has the comment section for feedback on the videos. It would be great if somebody at the White House could keep tabs on the comments and respond every once in a while. Perhaps instead of a weekly radio address, you could answer a question on YouTube. I would watch that. Plus, I wouldn’t miss the weekly radio address. I don’t think anybody born after the Great Depression would miss that. I’m just saying.
OK, I’m done playing presidential advisor. (Note to Obama: I would be available for Secretary of Social Media, if you want to go that route.) Happy Inauguration Day!
Ask these questions to yourself and get others to look at your designs as well. Ask them the following questions, and you will have some profound ‘ah hah’ moments.
Pre-Design and Development Questions:
1. What is my website about? (knee jerk reaction)
2. What do I want you to do?
3. Can people get to where they want to be in 2 clicks?
4. Why should people buy from me instead of my competitors?
5. Is that reason obvious to people?
6. What resistance in the design and layout might there be to my site’s end goal?
Ask these SEO questions during the design/development process once you have chosen an effective design.
1. Am I using keywords in the title, description, headings, and menus?
2. Am I using keywords in my pictures ALT tags?
3. Is my video described similarly?
4. Are my keywords mentioned approximately 3 times in the page copy?
Resources:
Platforms
Obray
Wordpress
Joomla!
Dupral
Development
SEO Cheat Sheet
Keyword Research
Google Adwords Keyword Tool
Market Samurai
Wordtracker
Keyword Playground
Picture Optimization
Optimizing Your Images
SEO for Pictures
Video Optimization
25 of All Searches Are on YouTube
ReelSEO
Video Sitemaps
Audio Indexing
Newspapers will have to adapt to social media to survive and thrive in the future. Luckily, it seems that some social media tools have adapted to newspapers as well. Twitter is the best example. It’s a rapidly growing microbloging site where people write one-liners to share links and ideas. What could be more perfect for newspapers? There is just enough room for a headline and a link to a story.
Most major mass media outlets have jumped on board, including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Anderson Cooper, and many more. It’s great to see. And as a media consumer, I find it’s amazingly convenient to get real-time, yet unobtrusive updates from my favorite news sources. I’ve noticed, however, that most of these news organizations could greatly improve their Twitter effectiveness by writing better headlines.
Here are a few tips on Twitter-optimized headline writing:
1. Keep it short.
Twitter gives you 140 characters to get your message out, but don’t feel obligated to use every space. The print versions of newspapers are so constrained by space that when journalists move to the relatively unrestrained web, they sometimes have a tendency to go overboard. Don’t use 140 characters if you can get the same point across with 139. I suggest using only about 30 characters for a headline, then add the URL to the story.
2. No puns.
We all love a good pun, especially headline writers who are trying to spice up an otherwise mundane story. But cute words games are death on Twitter. If I don’t know immediately what a story is about there is no chance I will click on the link. In many ways, this is a return to the purism of just-the-facts journalism. Puns are coy, and coyness wastes time. Cut it out.
3. Focus on keywords.
Practitioners of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) put a heavy emphasis on identifying and using keywords. Newspapers could take a cue from them. Identify the most important words from the article and put them in your Twitter-optimized headline. Try to imagine you’re a news consumer looking for a certain story, what phrases or words would you Google to find it? Those are your keywords.
(Right now, I’m obsessed with Gaza. If I see a tweet with “Gaza” in it, I read it. But if it says something like “attacks continue,” there’s a good chance I’ll ignore it.)
4. Use Hashtags
A hashtag, or a pound sign, #, is a way to categorize tweets by content instead of friends and followers. For instance, if you have a story about Darfur, you should put #darfur at the end of the tweet. This way, anyone who is instested in that topic can find your story, even if they aren’t following your updates. You may need to search Twitter a bit to find the most appropriate hashtag for your story
5. Don’t consolidate stories.
Use one tweet for each story you put out. Don’t confuse people by putting two or three different stories into a catchall post. These consolidated tweets often sound like advertisements or shameless plugs. Remember, Twitter, is much more unobtrusive than other new media, like text messaging. It’s OK to put out a lot of content as long as it’s pertinent and helpful to readers.
6. Link directly to the story.
Don’t waste a reader’s time by putting a headline for a specific story and then a link that goes to your main page. Remember using Twitter is a service to help your customers find the news they want faster. Don’t jerk them around in a silly attempt to get more page views.
7. No subheads.
This is related to the first point, keep it short. As a general rule, if you’re using a colon, you’ve already screwed up. Just use the headline. Also, don’t give the section of the paper where the story appears in print. It doesn’t matter. The content matters.
Twitter is an amazing tool for daily newspapers and can be a key to their survival in the future. You’ve only got one line to sell your story to the readers, follow these tips and make it count.
- Marshall has been a reporter and newspaper editor in Kosovo, Korea, Iraq, Jerusalem and the U.S. He is currently the P.R. and Social Media Director at Advent Creative.
–Clay, an award winning filmmaker and videographer, leads Advent’s multimedia department. His work has garnered recognition in film festivals around the world, including Apple’s Insomnia Film Festival, where he and a team from Advent beat out thousands of other short films for the top spot. He was also featured in Variety.com for being one of the most promising young filmmakers in America
VIDEO SUMMARY:
1. Avoid tunnel vision
2. Refrain from zoom happy fingers
3. The tripod is your friend
4. Find the action first
5. Let there be light
6. Cutting your shot short
7. Label your media
8. Check your audio
9. Be personable
Some people I’ve talked with recently are certain that newspapers are dying. If you’re following the Chicago Tribune and the L.A. Times, then those people might appear to be right. Still, I insist that newspapers are not dying, they’re just changing.
The social media is quickly overtaking the traditional mass media model. Before, you would have one newspaper editor deciding what was the most important information for his audience to know. (I say “his” because it’s usually a man). For a small to mid-sized paper, that means you have one gatekeeper controlling the content for maybe 50,000 consumers.
Wanna be friends?