- Eric Majchrzak @freedMaxickCPAs of Freed Maxick CPA

“If you’re thinking about social media, you’re already way behind”

“Its the wild west all over again. The rules are there are no rules”

“Its about hearts and minds versus eyeballs and ears”

“Nobody died. That’s the rule I try to use” (regarding responding to email)

- Jeffery Hayzlett @jefferyhayzlett Chief Marketing Officer at Kodak

Add more quotes if you will!

Posted via web from Meredith’s Non-Blog

SEO is essentially: making your website findable on search engines like Google. The the acronym SEO has become a bit of a dirty word in the web design & development industry however, and the more forward-thinking in the field have abandoned term all together. Chris Coyier of css-tricks.com published a Common Sense SEO Checklist several months ago, that outlines common sense things you should be doing to make sure your website is findable. This is much different (and more, well, common-sensical) than the “old way” which I’m not even going to talk about here. But let’s just say its very geeky and very time consuming.

My point is, SEO is about customers finding you. With the advent of Social Media, we are beginning to see a shift in just who exactly is finding who.

Let’s look at this abstractly. You’re at your desk (performing essential functions and a high rate of productivity of course), and you’re thinking about grabbing a snack. Something healthy, something sweet. And lo’ and behold, from the sky appears a package of Oreo Cookies. You shrug and figure, “Well, since its right here…” and you consume several of these yummy concoctions.

It would be marvelous, if snacks worked this way, wouldn’t it? Fortunately, there are things that actually do work this way. Let’s look at this realistically now. You get to your desk in the morning, power up your computer, and browse to your Email, Facebook, and Twitter account. You receive e-newsletters about products you enjoy shopping for ( “Oh look, here’s a $10 off coupon and free shipping this week only!” ), Facebook updates from organizations and companies you are a fan of ( “Oooh that looks good, The Birkett Mills posted a recipe for Kasha Chili. Yum” ) and Tweets from Tweeple you follow ( “OH! Apple is coming out with a new touch-screen mini computer thing?” Awesome!” ).

Do you send out e-newsletters to your loyal customers – or do you hope they see your ad in the Wednesday paper?

Is your business on Facebook – or do you hope that your customers talk face to face to spread good word about you?

Are you on Twitter – or – OK, we’ll stop at Facebook.

But think about this concept. Think about how your customers typically find you, learn of your sales and promotions, get questions answered. It’s 2009 (nearly 2010 already!). Are you still advertising the same exact way you did 10 – 20 – 40 years ago? You have the tools and the power to find them. It requires three things:

1. Time
2. Creative Thought
3. Passion for what you do

If you lack at least one out of the three – maybe you should call me.

During the interview, I tweeted this question: “Will WP evolve into more of CMS and less of a blog platform?” It was re-tweeted 4 times, but no one responded with an answer or any kind of input. Obviously we are utilizing plugins and coding our own php to make the whole WP experience a little more CMS-ish. But I think we can agree that over time, the fewer plugins we rely on, the better.

There are about a gazillion posts floating about the design & development community with “101 plugins to make WP into a CMS” (or something similar). But aren’t we just treating the symptom here, instead of the problem? It’s fairly evident to me that these days nothing is static. The concept of a blog has really changed – or has it adapted to the world around it? Or is it obsolete?

Now that I think of it, the term “blog” is starting to get stale. It used to be a hip and cool buzzword, back only hip and cool people had them. Nowadays, everyone’s got a blog. My local volunteer fire department has a blog. What the hell for? It’s because a “blog” is really just a short word for “method for easily updating the content on a website.” Right?

It seems like there is now a very (…very) fine line that separates what a blog is and what addition of content is. What is a blog and what is mere company news? What is a blog and what is a list of your most recent tweets? What is a blog and what is a screen cast tutorial? What is a blog and what is an online TV show? Is it all mashing together for you now? It’s ALL a “blog”.

Let’s do some logic here.
IF blog = method for easily updating the content on a website
AND content on a website = the website
THEN blog = website.

See, there is no longer a difference between a blog and a website. I sure wish Wordpress developers would make strides to head in the direction of content management platform. We know they could be bigger, better, and more powerful than any other CMS platform out there. What do you think? Perhaps Wordpress should trudge on as a “blog” platform and a totally new CMS platform should be developed based on Wordpress. Maybe Wordpress is already heading in the CMS direction? Leave a comment and give me your 2 cents.

On a side note, this is the first of what will be many “Philosophy of Wordpress” posts. It may just be random thoughts spewing from my brain. So if you think I’m wrong about something, I would appreciate some feedback. I’m here to learn.

I started freelancing/my web design business (really, people, what is the difference?) a year and a half ago, with one skill set in my backpack: html. That’s it. Just the one. Ok I was getting the hang of CSS as well, but by no means did I have enough knowledge to consider it a skill. I started this business while I was still in school at Rochester Institute of Technology, while my daughter had just turned two, and her dad, my husband, Wayne had just left for this third tour in Iraq. Why would I inflict such a demanding and crazy life upon myself? Because when I returned to my html hobby after 5 years, and started learning CSS, I absolutely, positively fell in love with the concept of web design, web development, and the web as a marketing tool. I wanted to do what ever I could, however much time it might take, to become a “professional” “web designer”. I was addicted to learning, to advancing, to achieving, and most of all, addicted to creating a life for myself and my family that I would love living.

Back to the Cobbler thing.

My website sucks. It really does. It probably always will. Every time I sit down to really do something great with it, I am confused about what direction it should go, design-wise. I see sites by Obox Design and think, “Wow, yah! LOTS of graphics, LOTS of effects, LOTS of depth. That’s what I’ll do!” Then I stumble upon more minimalistic designs where its all just clean lines and beautiful typography. I struggle between displaying a website showing what I can do, and displaying a website that really represent my own personal design, inspiration, and personality.

So instead of struggling with a direction and decision making, I hereby make the decision to not do some big, whopping, hoopla of a website. Digg? Float? Stumble? CSS-loaf? Pattern Tap? I don’t need that crap. This isn’t a popularity contest, and my professional goals are not centered around impressing my colleagues. Well, maybe just a little.

I am now a full-time, employed web designer/graphic designer/problem solver/information organizer for a small local company called The Birkett Mills who is actually way bigger than they appear. I haven’t stopped freelancing, or doing pro-bono work for the Keuka Comfort Care Home.