During the course of our working with Ammar and his team to build this new community home base for Ford Canada, we implemented every trick in the book, some old and some new. Ford Canada endeavored to create their social media home base the right way, rather than the easy way. We’re so pleased to have had the opportunity to work with Ammar and his team. We hope this post in some way helps others to understand a little more about what it takes to create this Ford Blog.

4 in 6 – Four Ways Online Social Properties Have Changed in Six Years

1. Building online social properties is no longer an experiment for corporations. It’s the real deal, with real conversations that connect to measurable benefits for both the companies facilitating the conversations and the audience.
2. In the beginning, it was common practice to host a blog on a provider platform and pay as little as $30.00 per month; the rationale for spending more was difficult to justify. These “cut-rate” hosting solutions don’t meet the demands for big corporate blogs today.
3. Brands are no longer limited to the breadth and depth by how they can control their brand’s presence through design on a given platform. Blogs and community platforms can be beautiful, engaging, and can offer an extension of brand.
4. Content teams have transformed from company employees who passionately blog during their day job (nights and weekends), to highly organized content creation and response teams. They have the tools, the plan, the people, the experience, and an audience. Not long ago were the days that even BlogSouthwest.com was managed by one or two people who wanted to engage their community. Now they have an entire social media team.

Fast Forward

Ford Canada wanted to create a key social property to speak directly to the Ford Canada audience. The team at Ford Canada wanted to have its own voice in the Ford social landscape and they wanted to do so by building a best-in-class blog.

So, how does Ford Canada prepare its home base blog property to become part of the enormous (http:// http://blog.ford.ca/) Ford Social ecosystem? Following are some high level critical steps to plan for success.

User Experience Planning, Design, and Technology:

• Personas – Position your blog persona from the perspective of your audience. Ford paid special attention to the characteristics of the anticipated user base. They know this demographic well and are very focused on communicating to them the way they want to be communicated with.
• The forgotten audience – Don’t exclude your content team, they are an audience too. They will not only watch, read, and listen, but they will also interact and they need a clear understanding of how to do so with the chosen toolset.
• Inspiration – Look both inside and outside of the industry. Only looking at competitors will lead you to behaving like them if you are not careful. Go deep and wide on the research.
• Prototyping and User Testing – Ideas and concepts must move into fast prototyping, starting at low fidelity (sketches and wireframes) to high fidelity (full color design compositions). This is a facilitated process with key constituents at Ford and with an audience that fits the Ford customer demographic.
• Mobile, it’s not an afterthought – The Canadian community demographic using mobile devices is relatively larger than that of the United States, as such, Ford and RD2 are implementing near-term and future phase strategies to step the audience into this mode of communication.
• Make it look amazing – Have you seen the new Ford automobile lineup lately? The Ford brand is working hard to make its lineup look fantastic and any Ford online social property should work just as hard to uphold the brand image.
• Use the best tools on earth – WordPress is a proven tool. It’s the most commonly used blog platform and has had years of refinement. It does the job extremely well for many big blogs and it’s easy to rally a content team within its user interface.
• Plugins? Be Selective – The available plugins for WordPress is like a deep ocean. For big blogs, our short list looks more like a puddle. Ford Canada will evolve its blog and it will also manage versions and upgrades to WordPress. Ford Canada will want and need to be nimble and would rather be enabled by plugins rather than constrained by them.

It Takes a Village

Currently Ford has over 9 million Facebook fans and many millions more on distributed social channels. What’s been amazing about this project is that we worked with an entire team at Ford Canada whom we have never actually met in person. As you might imagine, a blog such as Ford Canada launches with various additional campaigns that are run in parallel. We’ve met some tremendous people who have been rock solid to deal with.

On behalf of RD2, I’d like to extend gratitude to the following for their participation both at Ford and an agency in Canada called Sonic Boom. Thanks Ammar Khan and the Ford Canada Team. Also thanks to Mark McKay, Helen, Rannie, and Richard Zeidel for their tireless efforts in working through the parallel activities and for great leadership in content. You are a team of amazing people and we are so glad to have had the chance to work with you!

And Now for the Screen Shots

You have only three seconds to establish an emotional impression from the instant your page loads to the browser. During that first three seconds your audience will formulate a decision as to whether or not they will invest in the next three seconds.

Within those first three seconds, the user will not begin reading or clicking. They are simply responding to design. They take in color, type treatment, layout design, and thematic messaging. It is within this amount of time where they decide, emotionally, if they like you or not. If not, they move to the next thing and you may never be seen again. If they like you, within those first three seconds, then congratulations because you have just earned the next three seconds. It is here that we move from establishing an emotional affinity to where the user is formulating a plan. Brain likes emotional response, therefore brain tells hand to move mouse and prepare to click.

Your website is possibly the first impression that is made to your audience. If it’s not the first impression then it’s likely to be the second impression. Does your website have three second staying power?

Dell approached RD2 with a new concept. It was called vStart. A new approach to the whole ‘cloud’ and ‘virtualization’ craze. What Dell created was a fantastic new idea that was shocking it hadn’t been done yet. Create an all-in-one, ready-to-go, plug-n-play, you’re-off-to-the-races cloud based virtualization package for companies that aren’t quite ready to step up to a full-on Enterprise level virtualization solution.

This was something new for Dell. It had to be different. It had to leave an impression. It would also be a lead generation website that is focused on delivering the maximum amount of information as possible to educate the audience on the value of cloud and an extended enterprise through virtualization. We started by re-thinking our pre-conceived notions of what we thought it needed to look like and how it needed to function. We went through several rounds of design and UX in order to make the end result innovative. While keeping Dell brand standards in mind, we were able to help push the site in a slightly different direction while not deviating too far. The entire site revolves around a featured animation sequence that allows the user to interact and discover. All of this was achieved with jQuery on a LiveBall platform resulting in a flawless sequence of motion transitions.

It’s not everyday we get the opportunity to help Dell promote a new product, so we took every opportunity to ensure it would shine.

This year, STA Travel has decided to “up the ante” and send two sets of lucky interns on three trips over the year. The first trip kicks off May 28 in Berlin and the interns will travel to Prague, Vienna, Munich, Venice, Rome, Florence, Nice, Lucerne, Barcelona, and Madrid!

In addition to a new look and feel, we’ve added some new functionality:

• Submit Your Video Process- This year, we utilized the YouTube API on the site to make the video uploading process more simple for applicants. During the Application process, users upload their video file and with a little behind the scenes magic, the video is automatically added to a designated World Traveler Internship YouTube account and added to their bio page on the website.
• Emphasis on Videos – We utilized Flowplayer for all other videos on the site. The homepage has a new layout that is very focused on video, with a large featured video at the top of the page, then the ability to view videos by year or by country in the carousel below. Users can also sort through videos on the new Videos page.

The Application process is a bit simpler this year as well. All applicants will fill out the online application including submitting their application video. STA Travel will then review the applicants and announce the top 20 on April 27. Following the announcement, STA will conduct interviews, then announce the first two interns on May 7.

Stay tuned and good luck to this year’s applicants!

The sport of MotoGP is one they are taking head on, living in various countries through the season. Now it’s time for Ben to think of the Ben Brand. He’s an international celebrity. And if you met him in person, spent any time with him, or went on a bicycle ride with him, you would realize he is really just a human being. Of course we think he is special. But the fact that he is a human, doing inhuman things, is what makes him so interesting to follow.

This launch signifies the creation of a new, home base, core property for Ben Spies. It’s a major first step in creating a framework of communications around his brand. After all, the sport of MotoGP is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing. It’s the Formula One of two-wheeled competition. To that end, the communications around one of the top motorcycle racers in the world should be nothing less than the pinnacle of web communications. It should be a property that serves as the core conduit of his communications around his brand. It will serve as a feed to the other “rented” properties such as Facebook YouTube, Twitter, and more.

There will be much to come. Best wishes to Ben for 2012!

When it comes to Twitter apps for iOS, there are many. Like easily into the thousands for iPhone alone. Each one goes about it a different way. Personally, I’m immediately turned away from a kludgy user interface. I’ve tried and discarded many apps for this very reason. The most basic piece that’s missed in most of these ,in my opinion, is flow. Some apps have an unnatural/illogical flow and I’m left sitting (or standing in the case of Twitter apps) there with “What?!” written all over my face.

Last April, a new Twitter app from a company called Tapbots entered the playing field… Tweetbot. Tapbots has a general theme across their apps: they’re treated like robots, each with a purpose. Tweetbot falls in line accordingly. What separates Tweetbot from the competition is what I call “robust simplicity.” The app itself is very full featured, but doesn’t make the user jump through hoops or dive through several screens to accomplish the most basic of Twitter. Image viewing, retweeting, starring, following, DMing, and searching… It’s all intuitive and can be done from the main timeline view. If I want to view my tweets that have been retweeted, something that isn’t exactly the easiest task in some apps, can be done just by entering the RT view by tapping on an icon in the customizable tab bar. Oh, and the push notification alert tone is nice too. Clean, subtle.

With Tweetbot, everything is one touch away. Okay, maybe changing some settings are 2… Less extra tapping means less frustration. Support for multiple accounts, push notifications, an amazing interface and amazing power in such a clean, responsive form makes it a no-brainer. Follow @tapbots here.

Tweetbot for iPad – (app store)
Tweetbot for iPhone – (app store)

Screenshots

Featured image from Tapbots
All images are copyrighted by their respective owners.

Let’s say you are responsible for running communications for a small, medium, or large company. And, you’re in the situation where you are pondering how to get started in this social media thing. How to become part of the conversation and to channel conversations within and around your brand in a new space. You know you need to be there, and you know it’s something that’s right for your brand. Maybe you already have the support from your peers and the executive team. And, maybe there are already conversations happening that you wish you could have been part of from a brand point of view … to represent your company in a professional manner and to have contributed in some positive way to the lives and interests of those having the conversation.

If you find yourself anywhere near the situation I’ve just described, then you’re ready to take your next step. And there’s lots to think about. There’s a whole strategy that can be unfolded to help you figure out how to look before leaping. And, lots of companies out there know perfectly well how to guide you through that process (ahem, especially RD2 of course!)

This post is not to walk you through that strategy though. The purpose of this post is to potentially help you to get “unstuck.” It’s about thinking from a bigger picture perspective about the type of online property (or, properties) you will be creating. And now-a-days, there are a myriad of options available to you. And we think it’s critical to get started with the right kind of thinking, to get unstuck, and keep you from getting stuck down the road.

Here we go — You may likely be on your own or part of a team, and you will find yourself devising content strategies across different property types. These online properties may be any one of the following:

* Your Blog
* Facebook
* YouTube
* Twitter
* Tumblr
* Google +
* LinkedIn
* Posterous
* Pinterest
* Flickr

Great, so where do you start? We always recommend you start by thinking through the following simple exercise: “Which properties will you Own, vs. which properties will you Rent?” Think of the analogy as if you are living in a home. Do you own the home? If so, you can change the landscaping any time you want. You can remodel the kitchen. You can put some fancy yard art to enlighten or frighten your neighbors. You can even place a sign in your yard supporting your candidate for the next election. Can you do these things if you Rent that home? Not always. Maybe you have an extremely cool landlord who will let you remodel the kitchen, but then maybe when you are done you will find that you have 30 days notice to leave the property in your month to month contract. That would probably irritate as would any of us if we were in that situation. You might be free to hang a sign, but there could be restrictions over what you put in your yard. You might need approval before paying for a landscaping overhaul.

The point here is to be very careful about how you think of hanging these online properties together. We often communicate the simple “hub and spoke” metaphor. We strongly urge the companies we advise to put the property they own in the very center, and the spoked properties are those they rent. Translation: the property you own is the one you have control over. You are free to completely set the rules, the vision, the design, the content strategy, the privacy policy, and the methods through which you moderate (or not) the content that flows into, and out of, this property.

Let’s be clear, do you need rented properties such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, G+, Posterous, and many others? ABSOLUTELY! They must be part of your content strategy if they make sense for the communications of your brand. We’d be foolish to ignore those. But, hang those around the property you own, your blog property, or your social media platform property. Remember the property you own is the one you control. The property you own is NOT the property that can change its privacy policy, or how content is syndicated, or who owns the content that goes onto that property. The property you own is the property where you and your shareholders/stakeholder set the rules and not where the shareholders of the property itself decide the path you might be driving tomorrow, without your consent.

Case in point, we’ve seen some properties change. Everyone knows the Facebook saga. Sure, we’re all glued to Facebook, but when they change their rules it’s always met with skepticism. We see that skepticism in the form of public gripes that litter our Facebook walls. We’ve seen one of my favorites recently, Posterous, announce their sale to Twitter. Posterous has a really cool thing and it was so easy to recommend this as a core/home base (owned) property to anyone in the past couple of years. And, many have lots invested on Posterous in their content strategy. I’d hate to have to communicate to my fellow stakeholders that the future of our communication strategy is now in question because what we thought was an Owned property was actually a property we rented.

So, where do you go from here? It does not matter if you are a pastry chef with your own shop, if you are Southwest Airlines, or if you are a professional MotoGP racer. Position yourself, your stakeholders, your content strategy, and your brand with a property that can best support your rules. Make sure your brand is not in harms way by relying on other channels that could change tomorrow without any notification.

So setup a property, a website, a blog, a social/community home base that you can own/manage/control. Own the message, and then flow that message into (and from) the rented properties. Have fun building your community through those rented properties as well, but chose an Owned platform that fits into your strategy and budget to anchor your conversation strategy.

Owning your own home is a lot of work. There are maintenance costs and upkeep, but in the end, what you have is ultimately yours. Rented properties seem easy in the short run but don’t be shocked when the policies change, and you and your content are put out on the street.

So go find a house, paint your fences, plant some daisies, and invite some friends over – you’re here to stay.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!