Rodriguez will provide an overview of how social media tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, have changed the way entrepreneurs conduct business. Brian will be joined by New Orleans entrepreneur Damien LaManna who will discuss the impact that mobile marketing has on the way business owners connect with current and prospective customers. The seminar is free, and it will be held from 1PM to 3PM at 4950 Essen Lane (Baton Rouge).

Arriving in our hotel on Sunday night was such a relief. We had just driven 26+ hours from Baton Rouge to Boston. The conference was worth it.

Monday we got to hear some excellent presenters like Jared Spool, Kristina Halvorson, Jeremy Keith, Dan Cederholm, and Jason Santa Maria among others. Tuesday we were privy to the presentations of Jeffrey Zeldman, Dan Mall, Simplescott, Heather Champ, and Andy Clarke. The knowledge flowed like a river. I would love to be able to share everything I learned but I’m afraid there’s just not enough space on the internet for that. (Heh, there actually may be.)

But some really key points I picked up on from the conference are:

• Doing it just like Amazon.com does it, is not necessarily the best solution for everyone.- You have to have to traffic to sustain the type of site that amazon has, and amazon has millions of pageviews a day. Searching for something obscure on amazon typically doesn’t wield helpful results, you need a pretty good idea of what you’re looking for.
• Content is not a feature.- Content generally gets overlooked and we as web developers have been trained to accept the “put-off” of content until the final stages of the site. When, ideally, the content should all already be assembled and ready to go before the structure and architecture of the site are completed.
• Be bold, use structure, and sketch ??????? ????????? ????? ?????? ????????? 2
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  - Jason Santa Maria talked about the marginalization of design not due to inability, but due to fear and lack of process. He strongly emphasized using a grid structure, the types of grids to use, and the power of sketching.

• Sketching is not about what kind of artist you are but about the flow of information and ideas. Once you exhaust all the normal and conventional ideas you’re forced to think outside of the norm.
• We need to plan for the future. The DISTANT future.- Jeremy Keith talked about planning for the future through our CSS and using fluid layouts, jquery, and javascript. Cool URI’s don’t ever change. It was really a talk about your legacy on the web, and how the argument could be made that not only are screens getting bigger, they’re getting much more varied. So when you’re coding a site, you need to allow it to adapt to the future.
• Web Designs should ultimately lead back to user interface and usability. If something isn’t producing a good number of clicks, find out why and fix it.
• Test, Retest, and Evolve -  Simplescott creative director for the Obama Campaign’s website showed us the entire process he went through while working on Obama’s site. The key point communicated was that through testing, and evolution eventually a final was approved, and through user testing they could see that it was an easily navigable site.
• The fold is dead. – Everyone has a mousewheel now. The day when we needed to worry about what fit on the very first part of the screen is over. People will scroll down, and they will see your content.
• Make lemonade out of lemons -  Heather Champ (Community Manager at Flickr) had a great story about how when their site crashed, they ran an impromptu creativity contest with just 2 circles as the original idea. The users of the site then went to all ends of the spectrum and created some really cool effects (rather than freaking out about flickr being down). It’s a testament to ingenuity and finding ways to turn a bad situation into a good one.
• Re-engineer your workflow. Make mockups in browsers not photoshop. – Andy Clarke dropped this bomb on us as the last presenter. Making mockups in browsers is so unconventional and yet, after he really explained the process it makes  sense. It can clearly communication subtle web behaviors like hovers, javascript, and more. And if the client wants a sitewide color change, one line of css fixes that rather than changing a whole mockup.

I walked away from An Event Apart with all my premonitions and expectations annihilated. It was the most inspiring moment of my career. I would personally like to thank @brianrodriguez for sending me, because it is truly something I won’t forget.

First Steps

1. Build an account and immediate start using Twitter Search to listen for your name, your competitor’s names, words that relate to your space. (Listening always comes first.)
2. Add a picture. ( Shel reminds us of this.) We want to see you.
3. Talk to people about THEIR interests, too. I know this doesn’t sell more widgets, but it shows us you’re human.
4. Point out interesting things in your space, not just about you.
5. Share links to neat things in your community. ( @wholefoods does this well).
6. Don’t get stuck in the apology loop. Be helpful instead. ( @jetblue gives travel tips.)
7. Be wary of always pimping your stuff. Your fans will love it. Others will tune out.
8. Promote your employees’ outside-of-work stories. ( @TheHomeDepot does it well.)
9. Throw in a few humans, like RichardAtDELL, LionelAtDELL, etc.
10. Talk about non-business, too, like @astrout and @jstorerj from Mzinga.

Ideas About WHAT to Tweet

11. Instead of answering the question, “What are you doing?”, answer the question, “What has your attention?”
12. Have more than one twitterer at the company. People can quit. People take vacations. It’s nice to have a variety.
13. When promoting a blog post, ask a question or explain what’s coming next, instead of just dumping a link.
14. Ask questions. Twitter is GREAT for getting opinions.
15. Follow interesting people. If you find someone who tweets interesting things, see who she follows, and follow her.
16. Tweet about other people’s stuff. Again, doesn’t directly impact your business, but makes us feel like you’re not “that guy.”
17. When you DO talk about your stuff, make it useful. Give advice, blog posts, pictures, etc.
18. Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things.
19. Don’t toot your own horn too much.
20. Or, if you do, try to balance it out by promoting the heck out of others, too.

Some Sanity for You

21. You don’t have to read every tweet.
22. You don’t have to reply to every @ tweet directed to you (try to reply to some, but don’t feel guilty).
23. Use direct messages for 1-to-1 conversations if you feel there’s no value to Twitter at large to hear the conversation ( got this from @pistachio).
24. Use services like Twitter Search to make sure you see if someone’s talking about you. Try to participate where it makes sense.
25. 3rd party clients like Tweetdeck and Twhirl make it a lot easier to manage Twitter.
26. If you tweet all day while your coworkers are busy, you’re going to hear about it.
27. If you’re representing clients and billing hours, and tweeting all the time, you might hear about it.
28. Learn quickly to use the URL shortening tools like TinyURL and all the variants. It helps tidy up your tweets.
29. If someone says you’re using twitter wrong, forget it. It’s an opt out society. They can unfollow if they don’t like how you use it.
30. Commenting on others’ tweets, and retweeting what others have posted is a great way to build community.

The Negatives People Will Throw at You

31. Twitter takes up time.
32. Twitter takes you away from other productive work.
33. Without a strategy, it’s just typing.
34. There are other ways to do this.
35. As Frank hears often, Twitter doesn’t replace customer service (Frank is @comcastcares and is a superhero for what he’s started.)
36. Twitter is buggy and not enterprise-ready.
37. Twitter is just for technonerds.
38. Twitter’s only a few million people. (only)
39. Twitter doesn’t replace direct email marketing.
40. Twitter opens the company up to more criticism and griping.

Some Positives to Throw Back

41. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
42. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
43. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
44. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
45. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
46. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
47. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
48. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
49. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
50. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

1. The Y@T PACK from New Orleans

Part of the Y@T PACK Bus Wrap

Net2NO, led by Damien LaManna, Tiffany Starnes, and Jessica Rohloff, is a group of young professionals dedicated to social change in New Orleans. The group puts a special emphasis on technology and economic development and they meet once a month to share ideas, collaborate on projects, and learn from special presentations by industry professionals. I joined Net2NO a few months ago and have greatly benefited from the gatherings. This group’s enthusiasm, creativity, and general concern for their community is truly contagious.

The Net2NO crew decided that we would charter a bus and go to the SXSW Interactive Conference as a group to let everyone know that not only is New Orleans open for business but also that the state is a thriving place for digital creatives and technology entrepreneurs to start or expand a business. With the help of awesome sponsors, we purchased booth space at the tradeshow armed with materials on Louisiana’s Digital Interactive Media Tax Credits for technology businesses, Angel Investment Tax Credits for start-ups, and personal success stories. We had a daily drawing at 5:04pm to give away weekend stays at the W Hotel New Orleans and a free registration to WordCamp NOLA in New Orleans, LA. (coming up April 10-11… David Link is a panelist… more info to come! )

Personally, I loved working the tradeshow booth because I saw so many people get instantly engaged in the idea of moving their businesses to New Orleans. I would mention the tax credits, the cost of living, the amazing culture, and the overall quality of life in New Orleans…and I would see people’s faces light up with excitement. I firmly believe that Net2NO will get at least one business to actually move their firm to New Orleans as a result of attending the SXSW conference.

David Link, Alise Johnson, Damien LaManna, Brian Rodriguez

Of course,  it wasn’t all work all the time. We had to throw a New Orleans party and show Austin a good time! On the night of Monday, March 16, the Y@T PACK rounded up a few hundred people at Lucky Lounge to listen to DJ Othertempo, a.k.a. Elliott Adams, who is also the Director of the Digital Interactive Office in the Louisiana Economic Development Department, and Austin Nights Brass Band. The amazing party was organized by young arts enthusiast, Andrew Larimer.

2. The SXSW Presentation / Panels

Of course, this was the meat of the conference. I had the opportunity to attend many beneficial keynote presentations and panels that discussed a variety of topics that will help further my career and ultimately provide a better product to my clients. On Saturday, I attended a presentation by Robert Hoekman, Jr. entitled “The 7 Rules of Great Web App Design.” It was a well-done presentation, and I’ll expand on his 7 rules in a future blog entry. Later that day I also attended panels that included design greats such as Jeffrey Zeldman and Jason Santa Maria.

By far my favorite presentation was by Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary has built a $60M business with his light-hearted and fun video blog “The Wine Library.” Gary had a tremendous impact on me, so I’ll have a comprehensive blog entry coming up that recaps his talk. Stay tuned!

3. The Support for New Orleans Entrepreneur Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures

Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures

Net2NO member, Chris Schultz of Voodoo Ventures, moderated a panel at SXSW called “Outsourcing 2.0: Is the World Flat or Not?” The interactive format included Q&A with other panelists, including New Orleans developer Matt Tritico, Sandeep Sood of Monsoon Multimedia in Silicon Valley and Andrea Azdril of Startech Global in Los Angeles. The room was packed with entrepreneurs, developers, and designers full of questions on the topic. Schultz did an exceptional job, and it really made me proud to see a New Orleans entrepreneur leading a discussion on a very important topic at a major tech conference. I had a tremendous sense of pride during the presentation, and I feel privileged to share both a business relationship and friendship with Chris. If you don’t know Chris yet, you need to get on it.

So, there you have it folks. I had the time of my life. I cannot wait until next year!

**Did you go to SXSW? Briefly share your exciting moments from SXSW with us below in the comments area!**

On February 12, 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting “Twestivals” which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water. If you’re not a Twitter user, don’t be shy… this event is open to anyone! If you’d like to sign up for Twitter, click here. Be sure to follow BRTweetup to stay up to date on all future events. Gatorworks is hosting the local Baton Rouge Twestival at 600 Main Bar downtown. The evening will start at 6PM, and Bode & Friends (jazz and funk band) will take the stage at 7PM. We will ask for a $15 donation at the door, but whatever you can give is fine with us! We will provide food and a cash bar as well as the opportunity to meet many local Baton Rouge business professionals.

Again, if you’re not a Twitter user, don’t be shy… this event is open to anyone! If you’d like to sign up for Twitter, click here. Be sure to follow BRTweetup to stay up to date on all future events.

About Charity: Water

Right now 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us. Many communities in developing nations often have a plentiful supply of clean drinking water just below the ground, but no way to get to it. This is where charity: water and their partner organizations come in. Drilling a well can cost from $4,000 – $12,000 USD and many living on less than $1 a day cannot afford one in their community, even if the money is combined.

Twestival is organized 100% by volunteers around the world and 100% of the money raised from these events will go directly to support charity: water projects. By rallying together globally, under short timescales, for a single aim on the same day, the Twestival hopes to bring awareness to this global crisis.

Event Details

Thursday, February 12, 2009
6PM – Till
600 Main Bar: http://www.600mainbr.com/
We ask that you make a $15 donation at the door, but we’ll certainly accept any amount you can give to charity: water. http://www.charitywater.org
Free Food (catered by Tramonte’s!)
Live Entertainment by Bode & Friends (jazz and funk band)

Twitter users can RSVP here: http://twtvite.com/2zhb3o

Everyone else can please RSVP by emailing Brian Rodriguez at brian@gatorworks.net.

Check out http://twestival.com/ and http://batonrouge.twestival.com for further details!

If you build it, they will come…or so you thought. So you have a new website, but no visitors? What do you do?

Useless.

A friend of mine, Jorge over at Reach Local, likes to use this analogy: “It’s like a gas station in a desert. You can build the best website ever, but if there are no people coming to it, it’s useless.”

Well, here are three tools you can use to increase your web traffic.

1. Offline The first place you want to start marketing your new website is offline. Yes this may seem backwards, but most of your customers are not going to know (or know that they should know) that you have a new website. Shout it from the rooftops. Put your new website address on all of your business cards, letterhead, signs, advertisements, emails, etc. Tell it to everyone you speak to. Send an email to all of you contacts letting them know of your hot new site. Notify all of the organizations you are a member of and try to get them to pass word to all the members.
2. Search Engines Almost 80% of your traffic will probably come from a search engine. There are ways to optimize your traffic. SEO (organic search engine optimization) and PPC (pay per click) are two of the main ways to go about this. I won’t go into much detail here (for PPC that’s another post and we’ll have more information about organic search engine optimization coming soon as well).
3. Your website! Yes, your very own website can be a huge tool in promoting itself. Make sure you target your site to its audience. If people don’t like the site, then no matter what you do, they won’t go. Put up a blog and post about what people care about. (this also helps search engine traffic) Make sure you make it easy to use and look good.

1. Give them a reason to open the email with a good subject

The first thing that you do when you look at an article is read the headline. Same thing goes for an email; you read the subject. Make it attention grabbing and give it a hook to entice the reader.

2. Write original content that provides solutions to a target audience.

Write to a specific group. When you address problems people can relate to, they feel like you’re writing directly to them. (Which you are!) Solid, original content is important. No matter what your area of expertise, write about what people want to know about. Write about the solutions to their key issues. Be a resource. Give them a reason to hire you.

3. Don’t use big words!

We are often tempted impress people with large words. Write as if you were speaking directly to your ideal client and do it in a conversational tone.

4. Get them to look forward to receiving your message.

Post often, but don’t overdo it. I think the golden spot is between once a week to once a month. I set up a calendar with article subjects and dates. Have a reserve of articles written and ready to go so that if an emergency comes up, you won’t miss your deadline. Readers get used to your schedule and notice when an issue is missing.

5. Invite readers to provide feedback, questions, and topic suggestions.

The goal of all this is to get people to like and trust you. Leave it open for feedback, questions, or topics to talk about. Inviting feedback opens up a one-way communication into a two-way conversation. People appreciate the opportunity to give you their opinion or ask a question.