Sorry Dad!
I've just got home after a week's holiday in the British sunshine. During this time my wife and I have celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary which has gone pretty fast. On returning home, and seeing it with fresh eyes, it was even clearer to me that after all this years our house is in need of redecorating! It doesn't seem that long ago that I took on this mammoth task myself but the wear and tear of four children has taken its toll... The more I look the more I see evidence of missing wallpaper, chipped radiators and dented skirting boards.

So what's the best way to tackle the revamp? Rip down everything and start afresh or work on patching up what we have? Like any big project the temptation is to opt for the latter. The danger is that once it's all done the money is spent, other more pressing concerns get in the way and things start to fall into disrepair. Everything starts looking out of date and before long it's embarrassing to invite any visitors round!

The above is also true when undertaking any big design project like launching a new website. An old rotting website can cause visitors ending up with a bad impression and rarely returning causing damage to the brand. The cycle then repeats itself again at considerable effort and cost. The chief danger here is that for most of the website's life it is operating below peak efficiency.

Goodbye and good riddance
No website is 100% awful yet the most attractive option for a redesign is to bin everything and start again. That means a lot of useful (positive and negative) intelligence is wasted at a considerable cost. It's only once a site goes live that proper intelligence can be gathered on people's reactions (even with a decent amount of user research and testing). But the way in which these projects are planned means that this is the exact stage the money runs out.

The single worst thing that can be done is to migrate any content across. The equivalent of this is me using old bits of skirting board to make new ones. See it as the perfect opportunity to reduce the size of the site and write only what is needed. By listing the questions the user may have and prioritising them it ensures that no page is wasted.

During the build it's easy to try and glory in what has been learnt from the previous site. But by making so many changes all at once, and completely replacing it, how is it possible to be sure?

It's not quite this bad!
So it turns out I only have myself to blame for my house needed so much cosmetic work all at once! I should have been making incremental improvements all along and not just fixing things when they needed it.

By taking this approach to website management the site is always being optimised. It also helps spread the cost rather than having to find a massive lump sum for a complete revamp every five (or ten!) years. There's also no throwing out of good working elements just to recreate them. And of course at risk of sounding like a broken record it allows for "evidence based decisions" (I'm quoting my past self there!) and not wasting time and money building unnecessary features. This approach also helps get new features up and running before the competition and keeps users coming back to what's new on offer.

To get this model working there needs to be a decent set of in-house skills. A scaleable CMS means not relying on an agency to access the more advanced features. If the design isn't too wedded to the technology it's even better to allow adaption to any new developments.  This team needs to have skills which involve stakeholder management and content creation alongside the usual technical expertise.

Let's do this!
If the site is built in such a way that it has an excellent pattern library, reusing various components keeps it consistent and easy to update. This way, and just like in the case of redecorating, it ensures that this will be the last big expenditure. After one final big redecoration effort it's time to keep making those improvements and to make sure there is the team to do so.

I guess I'm literally the 'in-house' team when it comes to our home improvements. At least one of the many perks of working at Kier is I get a Trade Point card. How long does Google Maps say it is to the nearest B&Q?
May the force of four AA batteries be with you!
A couple of weeks ago my news feed was full of articles defining a new term - 'Xennials'. This is used to describe tiny micro-generation of people between Generation X and Millennials and was coined by associate professor of sociology Dan Woodman from the University of Melbourne. Essentially, those born between 1977 and 1983 (the time of the original Star Wars trilogy) were identified to have very similar character traits. This is that they had a unique experience of pre-internet childhoods that led into a tech-centered early adulthood.

I was particularly fascinated by this as I fit within this category (only just!) My formative years were during a time when I didn't have to worry about phones or social media posts. If I wanted to meet up with friends I had to ring their houses and ask their parents if I could speak to them! As the definition of Xennials is quite flattering I was also guilty of feeling proud to identify as one. We are considered less pessimistic than Gen X, defined as being born from the mid 1960s to early 1980s, but not as entitled as Gen Y, born from the early 1980s to late 1990s. While not young enough to be 'digital natives', Xennials grew up with technological advances, and tend to be more comfortable with them than Gen X. To me this explained how I can be old but still possess a grasp of the importance and practical applications of digital! It played to my ego as someone who likes to see themselves as understanding the benefits of technology but not ruled by their devotion to it.

'Could you tell me how to setup a MySpace page sir?'
Of course, treating a cohort of people like one person with one set of values is problematic. Essentially it's no more sophisticated than horoscopes and can be dangerous if taken too seriously. This concept of generations can however be fun for reminding us of a social context and the experiences that shaped our lives. Sharing jokes about the sound of dial up internet ('nobody use the phone I'm going online!) or 'Asking Jeeves' is about as far as the usefulness of this concept goes.

For me, digital marketing was a career which I naturally fell into. I'm thankful that a path opened up to me where I could progress my skills and stay relevant. I put a lot of this down to always having the ethos of being able to see an idea through from start to finish without always having to go through different lines and levels of management. Having a skillset which allows for this is essential. For example, when video editing I edited, produced and directed – that’s three or four jobs being done by one person. Being able to do this means you can present fully realised ideas to management and get the buy-in you need to progress a project. Without this you're very reliant on resources from other parts of the business.

I'm definitely too old for this hipster office wear!
Succeeding in marketing today is having the foresight to not see this method of working as a threat. Many middle managers might be concerned over their job future which is why they stop new, more efficient ways of working getting through.

It's also about being open minded enough to realise that different age groups work differently. Being able to listen and learn from both is important. I can honestly say that I've learnt as many skills (both strategic and technical) from those younger than me as from those older than me. To only learn from your superiors means you may become a great corporate thinker but will increasingly lack the latest skills required to actually do the job.

To finish I'd like to apologise for writing another age related post. Clearly turning 40 later this year is clearly playing on my mind. I for one can't be so stubborn as to not accept advice from someone younger than me as they are increasingly making up the majority of my colleagues...!
One in the same!
Keeping up with the amount of new features on the main social media channels can be pretty intense. Recently, it seems companies are releasing weekly updates in their attempts to stay relevant. The drawback of this is that they are in danger of all blending into one. As a digital professional trying to retain which channel can now do what requires a lot of brain space. I'm in danger of pushing out vital pin numbers!

With our new campaign on the horizon I've been researching how we can ensure the best possible exposure on social media. Therefore, this post aims to summarise a few of the most impactful updates released over the last few months for marketers:

Facebook:

As the most established (and arguably most well resourced) social media channel Facebook are particularly busy at the moment. They have released lots of new features over the last few months so here's my pick of the most interesting ones:

Video banners:
For some time now, Facebook has collaborated with selected brands to test using video-format cover images. Once the new feature is rolled out globally, the cover video needs to be a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 90 seconds long. The recommended video crop size is 820 pixels by 462 pixels and cover videos should auto-play and auto-loop.

Live features:
Facebook live has seen an increased amount of usage of late. With the addition of their new 'Live With' feature you can now stream conversations as they happen. For advertisers, this new feature could present a set of opportunities for broadcasting interviews, courses or webinars right in the Facebook news feed. Live video can also now be broadcast from desktop and laptop computers (it was previously exclusive to the mobile app).

Location-based camera filters:
In a homage to Snapchat users can now make custom camera "frames" that others can overlay over photos and add to their profile pictures. Frames can be seen by everyone near an area if they are tied to a certain Facebook page with a location. Like a free version of Snapchat's geofilters!

Twitter

Nowadays, Twitter advertising is continuously overshadowed by new trendy marketing channels such as Snapchat and Instagram. They also invited a torrent of complaints a few weeks ago following a major redesign. The biggest issue being that, unlike it's rivals, it didn't introduce an edit button. One interesting feature of this update was that users can now watch the engagement numbers with tweets increase in real time within the app.

Moments
Whether you want to feature your own tweetstorm, content from other people, or both, anyone can now make a shareable Moment to tell a story. You can go into the Explore tab (or the Moments tab on Twitter's desktop site), and create a new Moment there. Or, you can find a tweet you want to feature and create a Moment while you're scrolling or on your own profile. Moments present another opportunity for users to get discovered and shared on Twitter.

Snapchat

This is another channel which recently faced a media backlash after introducing a new maps feature. 'Snap Maps' allows users to see each other’s locations. If two users follow each other, they can share their locations and see where the other person is and what they are doing. The idea is that users can stay up to date with their friend’s lives and meet up easily. This feature needs to be used with caution as seeing the location of others could potentially compromise their safety. It is automatically turned on for users so the message is to be very careful when adding people as friends. Cynics see this as another way to encourage more people to use Snapchat so they could then use their data to sell to advertisers.

Instagram

Instagram now have a whole suite of supporting apps (Boomerang, Hyperlapse and layout) with Boomerang starting the trend for short looping videos that you now see EVERYWHERE!

Location Stories:
In the past few weeks, Instagram has released a feature where users can add location stickers to their stories. This means that they can now tag your business in the stories they’re sharing with their friends. This can help build brand awareness and recognition, and it’s a powerful form of User Generated Content. When users tap on the location sticker, they’ll see the option to 'see location'. When they click, they’ll be taken to the page of the tagged location, where they’ll see the business name, a pinpoint on a map, and all the top posts about that location.

Instagram live:
Instagram Live broadcasts can now be saved onto your camera roll. After the broadcast is over, save it to your phone, and then upload it as a regular video post. If the video is too long for Instagram, you can take it straight to Facebook instead. Either way, you can now save your valuable live broadcasts, allowing you to build momentum from them and drastically increase their visibility and engagement.

Hashtag stickers:
Whereas previously you could only add hashtags to stories manually with text now, when customers watch your story, they can click on the “See Hashtag” prompt. Because the quirky nature of the Stories feature is perfect for the hashtag sticker, it’s a great opportunity to promote a campaign or inspire user generated content (or both).

So there's my run down of some notable new social updates. I hope you find them useful. I know I will as writing them down means I won't have to rely on remembering them!

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