Here is their old site:

GAPA Website Before

And here is their new site:

GAPA Website After

As you can see, the color palette changed quite a bit. Over time we had started using this nice, soft blue and wanted to use that as a dominant color in the new site. It brings a clean, warm professional feel to every page. We also brought in 4 large buttons to help direct people to the 4 main areas of the site. We also noticed that over time a lot of information had been posted to the homepage which we hadn’t really planned on when we built the last site. To better handle this we created a news feed on the homepage that could showcase all the important news. Also, conferences are very important to GAPA and its members so we wanted to include sidebar items that could advertise the upcoming conference opportunities.  Also while redesigning the website we did a lot of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) work as well as integrate a lot of social media making it easy for visitors to share every page and all content with their friends online.

Visit the new GAPA website now!

So you can imagine my complete and utter dismay at the thought of compiling an analytics report for my client, the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History.  I needed a stiff cocktail when I saw the umpteen spreadsheets…sheets and sheets and sheets of web, attendance, revenue and visitor demographic data that I had to sift through and from which I was to create charts.  Not only did it take me a scadzillion hours to finish, but I thought my coworkers might commit me at the point when I wandered aimlessly around the office muttering random sequences of numbers like Rainman, but with no cognitive thought behind them whatsoever.

Once my comprehensive review of the clients’ 2009/10 marketing efforts was finished (and I regained my sanity), I was really excited to know what the data revealed.  For instance, I was able to conclude that website activity for the Museum has increased dramatically.  We have had nearly 10,000 more visitors to the site this year over last.  Suddenly, all of my yammering on about web presence and social media engagement was validated!  The Facebook and Google ads we created were the top referrals to the site.  The other good news was that our Facebook and Twitter followers have doubled this year.  The Museum has nearly 800 followers!  Now that’s a number I don’t mind looking at!

All in all, I have concluded that numbers and figures really aren’t so bad.  Even though I much prefer to write and create, the numbers are necessary so that I know that where I lead my clients will promote brand awareness and drive revenue, especially in this “bad news” economy.  So, as I wrap up my analytics report and kick back with a much-needed adult beverage, I wonder if I can get those Facebook followers doubled again next year.  Wait, what’s 800 x 2 again?

In the B2B realm, the exact same thing is going on, key executives are pre-tailing their purchasing, professional services, and hiring decisions.  With today’s smart phones and new apps, your B2B prospect can research your competition, determine price ranges, and solicit recommendations from their friends (that’s the power of social media) right in front of you – even in your office.  That is called “In-tailing”, competitive research done in a store or in a meeting using smart phones, applications, text messaging, and the Internet. The consumer is more and more in control.

In the retail food industry, new strategies have emerged to respond and keep customers in the store.  They are personalizing the shopping experience and enhancing in-store ease and convenience. They are also providing consumers more information (healthy choices, complimentary menu choices, matching wines, etc.) and more “price transparency” – which is exactly what consumers (business and retail) are demanding – more information and truth in pricing.  Crazy?  Look what all the insurance companies are doing in their TV ads, asking consumers to “come to our website and we will provide you competitive pricing information” – that’s price transparency.

But what if you’re B2B?! Well know this, your B2B prospects are pre-tailing, too! Remember the data showing business people in their 50s and 60s are using the Internet – on average – nine hours a week.  The Forbes article I mentioned in my earlier blog clearly states that “C-suite” executives use the Internet to do research and about half do their own research.

As a B2B sales company, it is important to reconsider how you can use the web, online tools, and apps to enhance ease and convenience for your prospects and customers.  Understand, as I said before, how “combining relevant web content and search engine optimization is the very essence of a strong Internet presence today.”

In today’s pre-tailing B2B world, you need to ask yourself, if 50% of my prospects are pre-tailing via the internet, are they finding our website, are they finding our product information?  What are you doing to keep your pre-tailing customers and prospects doing business with your company?  When someone Googles your industry or your products, where does your company rank in the listings?  And, with social media, is your brand represented where they are searching – Facebook, 4Square, etc? And how can you find the answers to these questions?

Putting politics aside, marketers would do well to take a few pages out of Obama’s marketing playbook.  Why? It’s classic marketing with a flourish. Here are a few of the keys to Obama’s election marketing success; each can be related to your own business.

Consistency in brand message and positioning

Key to Obama’s success was having a consistent message which relates back to brand positioning. Unlike some brands that change campaigns as often as changing socks, Obama remained consistent and true to his brand positioning and message. From the onset, brand Obama carved out a position that adversaries couldn’t really touch: change. Specifically, “change that we can believe in.” He was the first to grab this banner, and he was successful in using this message to differentiate his campaign. His competition, first Hillary Clinton, then John McCain, struggled to find a message with traction. Both tried the “experience” angle, and Clinton even tried to copy Obama with her “Countdown to Change” message before migrating to “Solutions for America.” McCain, too, struggled to find a message that his audience could relate to, moving from “maverick” to “experience” to finally “Country First”, which never seemed to connect with voting consumers. Both tried to focus their messages on “I can do change better than him” but “better” rarely works in marketing and this was no exception. Obama clearly pre-empted the change concept in consumers’ minds so his competitors could never take it away from him.

Harnessed the power of the Internet

Team Obama was pitch-perfect in understanding the keys to appealing to all of his audience segments, especially the younger market that is often unattached to political parties, and, at least prior to 2008, somewhat apathetic to elections. He knew how to reach this group on their terms via the Internet and social media.

The centerpiece for Obama’s Internet voice was his website, and his team left nothing untouched. Their strategy was to first build a massive “opt in” email list. Once captured, he was able to circumvent traditional (and expensive) media and communicate with his community directly. Almost 4 million supporters opted in. When you first landed on the Obama website, you were immediately asked to join his mailing list and they made it incredibly enticing to subscribe by providing specific reasons to sign up (does your website do that?).  They also aggressively asked for donations on every page and kept the threshold affordable for all (e.g. only asking for $5). Once visitors contributed, they became engaged and involved, and served as the backbone of a grass roots army of volunteer workers and “brand ambassadors.”

Leveraged social media

Blogs are one of the best methods of communicating and building relationships with consumers and Obama used them very effectively to communicate with supporters on a daily basis, even providing a channel for supporters who prefer to only consume news through RSS feeds. He took advantage of their social media consumption employing every high traffic social networking site including Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Eons, Myspace, YouTube, and Flickr. Not surprisingly, each of these accounts drove traffic to the main website for further engagement.

Messaging with mobile

Obama used mobile marketing to further his message distribution, and even introduced an app for Apple’s iPhone, the Countdown to Change calendar that ticked off seconds until Election Day. Perhaps, the “pièce de resistance” was his regular use of text messaging announcements prior to the news media having it. Social media also allowed him to almost instantaneously counter negative advertising by his opponents.

When a negative story broke on the news, his online community not only knew about it but had already heard Obama’s side of the story! It was “reputation management” at its finest.

Inviting tone and language

Obama’s communications were, for the most part, confident, consistent, professional, and reassuring without being slick or in-your-face. His Internet voice was always conversational – interacting like a human, not a brand – inviting two-way dialog. Team Obama also encouraged user-generated content, allowing people to feel like they were participating in the campaign process as well. Most importantly, the Obama staff was not afraid of potential negative comments, instead taking the opportunity for transparency and allowing users to share feelings and concerns. This allowed Obama to respond in a rational way to refute opposing arguments using reason and logic. It appears users appreciated that.

What you can do

Consider addressing your own marketing efforts like Obama’s team did. Here’s food for thought:

• Evaluate your brand message and positioning. Is it relevant? Is it ownable?  Does it really differentiate your brand?
• Are you consistent in your messaging? Have you avoided switching a campaign theme just because you’re personally tired of it?
• How well do you know your target audience? Are you reaching them in the right voice and in the right venues? What are their media habits?
• What are you doing to turn passive website visitors into avid supporters and fans of your brand? Are you providing tangible reasons for consumers to return to your website on a continuous basis?

In reviewing Obama’s 2008 presidential marketing efforts, he not only brilliantly executed the basics of marketing, but took advantage of new media technology to efficiently and economically build his brand. How does your marketing campaign compare?

Take a look at the before and after and then read my notes on what changed, what didn’t, and why.

Previous GAPA Site, 2007

The New GAPA Site

1. Consistency
When doing a major website update, it can be tempting to scrap everything you’ve done before and start from scratch. However, unless the branding, messaging or identity for the company has changed dramatically, this is usually not a good idea. Remember that many users come to your website and have become accustomed to where certain buttons are and how the site is organized. They usually know, or have a rough idea, where the information that they want is located and you don’t want to needlessly confuse them or make things difficult.  To keep consistency, we kept the same basic structure of the organization of the site and kept the menu system exactly the same and close to the same placement. We made the buttons larger and easier to see, but people who are looking for them in a certain location will easily find them.

2. Update Colors & Graphics
Updating a website is the perfect time for new colors and graphics for the site. If you have a budget for new photography or stock photos – terrific! If not, maybe figure out new ways of using the photos you’ve used before. One of the main focuses of this redesign was the color scheme. We wanted a much lighter, warmer feeling on the site so we revamped nearly all the colors. The logo stayed the same, and we used the red from the logo to indicate links.  We kept the cream color very close to the same and replaced the olive green with a nice soft blue.  It still looks brand consistent though as we made sure that the new blue “matched” or fit in the same color family as the original green. It makes it look less like a dramatic change and instead like a natural progression.

3. Make What’s Popular Convenient
I can’t overstate the importance of website analytics and if you have them running on your site, a website redesign is a great time to really get the most out of them. We found that some very popular content was buried a few levels deep within the site causing people to have to click multiple times from the homepage to get to what they wanted.  Since we didn’t want to restructure the organization of the entire site, we decided to design four large blue buttons on the homepage as quick jumps to those sections of the website.

4. Promote
While assessing the redesign we also realized the importance of promoting some of the events for the client so we built a section into the sidebar that will always showcase the upcoming events with links to register for the events and sign up for more information.

5. Update Framework
Since we were going in for a major redesign anyway, we decided to update the framework on the back end as well. The site had relied heavily on HTML and that was about it. During the redesign we updated all the HTML to be W3C compliant as well as utilized PHP and CSS to their fullest so that future updates and changes will be very efficient and ensure that the site appears properly on all modern browsers.

6. Clean Up
After years of having the same design, it’s easy to just keep adding things to the homepage or elsewhere until things begin to look a little cluttered and disorganized. We found that in the redesign, we were able to create a “News” section where we could post lots of updates and promote new items.  We also took the intro copy that had grown quite lengthy and edited that down quite a bit.

7. New Features
It’s always great to add some bells and whistles during a major redesign as well to really make people excited about it. These can be small things, like adding a “Back to Top” button to the bottom of long pages. Or something more noticeable like our big rotating promotional graphic that we added to the homepage. This adds some movement and interest for the visitor as well as a promotional venue for our client to promote their agendas.

8. Integrate Social Media
Since the previous website was created before the Social Media craze, it was time to get it integrated into the new site.  To keep people connected to the client we added links to their Facebook, Twitter and Email Newsletter to the sidebar of every page.  Also, to encourage social sharing of the website’s content, we also added an “Add This” widget to every page so that visitors could easily share what they find.

9. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
While upgrading the rest of the site, we had to take a look at the SEO work that had been done up to that point. Of course, SEO should be an ongoing commitment, but a big redesign is the prefect time to make some big changes.

10. Revive Forgotten Features
A redesign also is a perfect opportunity to turn your focus on some forgotten or hidden features of your site. Maybe you have an events calendar that no one visits or a forum that no one uses.  During the redesign, be sure to identify those items and promote them strongly to create interest and activity. Maybe people weren’t going to some pages because they couldn’t find them!

These are just some of the many benefits you can receive from performing timely and thoughtful website redesigns. Take a look at our final project and let us know what you think in the comments!

Visit www.gapa.net now!

1. Mashable “The Social Media Guide”

Mashable’s website is a great source to keep up with the latest news and developments in social media: http://mashable.com/ However, I very seldom visit it, I prefer several of their other ways of communicating which are through their RSS feed (http://feeds.mashable.com/Mashable), Twitter (http://twitter.com/mashable), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mashable), Buzz (http://google.com/profiles/mashable), or the good ‘ole email updates (http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Mashable&loc=en_US).

2. The Next Web “Best of the Web’s News, Views, Startups and Culture”

The Next Web is another great source for updates on social media and the internet in general. The community around it doesn’t seem to be as robust, but they usually have an interesting take on what’s going on. You can follow them at their website (http://www.thenextweb.com/) or through their RSS Feed (http://feeds2.feedburner.com/TheNextWeb), FriendFeed (http://www.friendfeed.com/the-next-web), Twitter (http://twitter.com/TheNextWeb), Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/thenextweb), or email (http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/emailverifySubmit?feedId=295309&loc=en_US) as well.

3. Read, Write, Web

This one’s a distance third on the list, but they still occasionally have some unique content or insightful commentary. Visit their website (http://www.readwriteweb.com/) for the latest, or follow them through their RSS Feed (http://www.readwriteweb.com/rss.xml), Twitter (http://twitter.com/rww), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ReadWriteWeb), or email(http://www.readwriteweb.com/newsletters/index.php).

Those are definitely the top three that I would suggest but I would also like to mention two more:

Gizmodo (http://gizmodo.com/) While Gizmodo is mainly a blog about technology on the hardware side of things, there’s a lot of content about social media and online culture. Also a lot of hardware now is driving social media, especially if you look at how GPS systems in smartphones enable the onslaught of location based services.

Your Friends: Once you make the plunge and get social media working for yourself and/or your brand, you’ll find that many contacts in your new digital social circle will be more than willing to share the latest news and give their opinions on the direction the technology is headed. And if you’ve got questions, they’re the people you want to ask. It’s a great reason to get a conversation started.

By simply staying up to date with these resources you’ll be doing a lot for your social media know-how. You’ll probably even to start feel like an early adopter! And for those of you who are already in the early adopter category, how do stay on top of it? What resources am I forgetting?

1. Publishing Media
These are websites (or platforms) that allow for the easy publishing of articles and information, usually in a longer, slightly less casual manner. Good examples of publishing media are blogs and wikis. The main ones are:

• WordPress
• Blogger
• Wikipedia
• Wikia

2. Content Sharing
These are sites and services that allow you to share content with your social network. What you share can be anything from music to photos to movies or links you found online. Most allow for some amount of commenting and discussion as well.

• YouTube
• Flickr
• Digg
• Last.fm
• Del.icio.us

3. Discussion
Many services have been developed for the simple task of quick communication through chatting or video conferencing. Some of the most commonly used are:

• Yahoo Messenger
• MSN Messenger
• Google Talk
• Skype

4. Social Networks
This is what most of us commonly think of when we think of Social Media. These networks can vary greatly in how difficult they are to become apart of as well as how specific their area of interest is. For example Facebook is a social network with a very general area of interest and is open to most of the public, Behance is a social network only for people interested in art and design and you must go through a review process to be accepted into the network. Here’s a list of some of the more popular social networking resources:

• Facebook
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Ning

5. MicoBlogging
Microblogging is very similar to regular blogging and the publishing media except that’s its done in much smaller chunks. Twitter only allows 140 characters for example.  Many of these services are very easy to set up and are built for the users to share information frequently and freely.

• Twitter
• Posterous
• Plurk
• Tumblr

6. Livestreaming
These are mainly applications that allow the users to create a one-stop-shop for all the feeds that they are generating through other social media. It aggregates a users activity around the web and presents it all in one location.

• FriendFeed
• Lifestream

7. Livecasting
While broadcasting your entire life may not be for you, it has become an internet sensation with a lot of users. Below are some examples of sites that allow you to broadcast your life or sit back and watch others.

• Livestream
• Justin.tv

8. Virtual Worlds
Virtual Worlds are entire online environments, usually in a digital three dimensional  environment where users can create personalities and avatars and interact with other users with a more graphic representation of a physical space. These are only a few of the main ones:

• Second Life
• There
• imvu

9. Social Games
As we all know, games are extremely popular online and maybe none more so than the ones that include your friends in the game play. Some of these can be stand alone websites or they can also be  applications that are used within existing social networks.

• Farmville
• Doof
• Pogo

10. MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) Games
These are very similar to a combination of #8 and #9. They usually take place in a digital 3D environment, but unlike a virtual world, there is usually a common goal or task to accomplish that you share with your friends. Here’s some of the most well known:

• Word of Warcraft
• Webkinz
• Club Penguin

11. Location
Probably the newest genre in the mix, location based networks are of course based around your location. Sometimes there are games involved or competition. Sometimes they are just used for reviewing businesses. The three standouts in the field so far are:

• Foursquare
• Gowalla
• Yelp

It starts with strategy and message.

At the risk of sounding “old school” (I was raised on the basic principles of David Ogilvy), there is no substitute for a cohesive and compelling marketing strategy and brand message. It’s all about finding the real attributes that make your brand unique, and then creatively leveraging those differences in your positioning and message. It’s also about connecting your brand with prospects, and that’s only achieved with the right message that should be baked into every touchpoint with your prospect whether it’s sales, customer service, product development, and yes, even social media.

Integrate social media with total marketing.

In the last few months we’ve seen global brand leaders such as Pepsi and Coca-Cola shift more monies from traditional media to social media, with Pepsi recently declaring that funds typically devoted to Super Bowl television advertising would be redirected to social media programs. More and more advertisers are doing the same as they see the value in how social media can make their brands more accessible to consumers on a 24/7 basis. But what these brands also understand is that their social media efforts must be integrated into the bigger marketing picture.

Keep expectations in check.

It’s human nature to desire quick and tangible results to any marketing program. But those that expect immediate results from social media marketing are setting themselves up for heartbreak and frustration. Social media vehicles such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, are effective tools but typically slower in building customer response and loyalty. It’s all about creating a long-term conversation with prospects and leading them – not commanding them – to action. It should never be confused with the direct hard-sell persona of traditional media efforts.

Keep this in mind when building your marketing program.

Ignore the “cheap” pitch.

Another concern I caution clients about is the argument that social media, along with Internet marketing, can be an inexpensive replacement for traditional media. My answer: it all depends. While there are definite cost efficiencies associated with social media and Internet marketing, the exclusive use of new media really depends on your target audience and your overall marketing objectives. Internet marketing lends itself perfectly for impacting narrow target niches. But if your target represents a broader audience, then marketing efforts warrant traditional media when a wider net is needed. Again, it depends on your strategy and the bigger marketing picture, and of course, the realities of a budget.

So, whether you’re an association looking to build its membership, or a packaged good trying to attract new users, social media is an effective weapon in the marketing arsenal.  Just make sure it supports – rather than replaces – your marketing communications strategy.

1. It’s free
   This is mostly for the people who haven’t even started yet, and if that’s you… what are you waiting for? You can sign up today, for free and the whole process takes less than 15 minutes.
2. People prefer it
   In recent polls, people have indicated that they prefer to be contacted by the brands they love via social media more than any other form of communication such as direct mail, email or advertising.
3. Be aware of the conversation
   There’s already a conversation happening online about your company and/or your industry. It’s best to be aware of that conversation and even better to be a part of it. (It’s of course the best to be leading that conversation – but not controlling it)
4. Get feedback from your clients/customers
   Facebook offers a great way for customers to leave feedback and give you their thoughts. Many people worry about negative comments left on their pages, and that’s a valid concern. However, it’s also an opportunity to receive some constructive criticism by finding out the true concerns of your clients. It’s also a great opportunity to offer your point of view as well as illustrate how you quickly and thoughtfully react to customer complaints.
5. Broadcast your message to people who are interested
   A strong fan base automatically creates an interested audience for any information you need to broadcast. Got a one-day only special – let everyone of your fans know about it in 30 seconds or less.
6. Targeted, cost-effective advertising
   With a small amount of money you can get a lot of exposure and grow awareness with highly targeted, cost-effective ads. Since Facebook “knows” a lot about its members, it can pretty easily find the ones that are going to be interested in your message.
7. Makes you easily sharable
   Just by the nature of social media and Facebook, all of your actions and the interactions between you and your fans can easily be shared with all of their fans, and their fans, and so on. This make it very easy for your voice to be multiplied.
8. Enforce brand awareness
   To create top-of-mind, brand awareness, advertisers would have to spend extremely large budgets and advertise to huge audiences over a long period of time to see any results. However, with Facebook, a commitment to Frequent interactions with your fan base can create the same affect.
9. Simple Loyalty program
   Offering specials to Facebook fans or announcing secret deals through Facebook messages can create an easy to set up, no hassle and FREE loyalty program to keep your customers coming back!
10. Easy to create and promote events
    Facebook can help you easily create events for your business that you can then invite your fans to as well as advertise to the Facebook population in general.

These ten items are by no means a complete list. There are many, many, many more benefits from getting your company on Facebook. Hopefully, though, this will give you another nudge in the right direction if you’ve been thinking about or tried it once but forgot about it. If you’ve already got your company on Facebook, what do you think are the best benefits?

Think back to your high school cafeteria. When you first walked in, the dozens (or hundreds or thousands, depending) of voices suddenly hit you like a wave. That’s Twitter.

The teachers and nerds may be discussing the latest news at their tables – stuff you need to know. The cheerleaders and jocks are probably gossiping at their tables – stuff you don’t need to know, but what you probably care about (even if secretly). And the emo kids are off at their own table, talking about some weird things you wouldn’t really care about. Then you have your own table with the people you communicate with the most. Now, from time to time you probably go over to where the drama kids sit because of that cute guy and sometimes you hang with the cheerleaders because your friend Becky is trying out for the squad this year. You join in the overall conversation.

Twitter = high school cafeteria. You only have a limited amount of time (140-characters exactly) to converse and get your point across.

So, you’re done with lunch and now you have to go to your locker. This is Facebook. Your locker is connected to those directly next to and above/below it. Those are your friends. On the outside you have a dry erase board where you put messages, like “2Good2B4Gotten” and your friends write messages to you like “I Wuz Here.” That’s your status update and wall. Inside your locker, you have your books, class notes, lip gloss and a pin-up of Justin Timberlake. Those are your apps and personal information. (You may even have a moldy sandwich … that’s like Farmville.)

You following me? Twitter is the cafeteria – everyone is in there, communicating, eating, sharing. While everyone is technically on Facebook, your own Facebook world is limited. Now, you could certainly open up your locker to everyone – but chances are you would only give out your locker location to certain people. Facebook is about building a community and having a conversation within that community. Twitter is a global conversation, open to all. (If you’re not down with the high school analogy, think of Twitter as a buffet in Vegas.)

Do you dig, or am I completely off the mark on this one? What are the differences between Twitter and Facebook in your opinion?