RyanShell.com

Marketing, public relations, social media... and a little of this and that.

Have you “Liked” my new Facebook Page?

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Have you “Liked” my new Facebook page? If not, I’d love for you to do so.

The page will contain a hodgepodge of posts related to business (marketing related), community and anything else I decide to post throughout the day. It’s going to eventually be my primary presence on Facebook and the look will evolve over the next week or so.

What’s up with the Name?

I previously had another personal page that was for my political campaign, and learned a little lesson. The page was named “Ryan Shell” and the updates looked like they were coming from my personal profile – which didn’t really work for me because I wanted to differentiate the updates.

I tooled around with different names for my new page, but in the end, simply going with “Ryan Shell (Page)” allowed for the desired differentiation and is also easily searchable.

Thanks in advance for liking my page!

Website: Don’t Forget About the User

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I’m about to start revamping a website that probably has 150+ pages and is in great need of some attention.

There are three core things that need to be accomplished:

  • Redesign the look of the site
  • Rewrite copy
  • Try to create a better overall user experience

The redesign of the site will be very welcome, but I think the rewrite and user experience portion of the project are wildly important.

Rewrite

The current copy is long winded and lacking in direction.

To combat this issue I’ll be reducing the copy and making sure the user has a clear path to follow. If something is being sold there needs to be an action item or a way to close the deal.

There’s also a nice chunk of redundant information that needs to be consolidated – doing so will allow for brevity, and also ensure that the action items or deal closers aren’t missed.

User Experience

Creating a path for the user doesn’t mean your questioning their intelligence; rather, you are creating an easy browsing experience – part of which requires that you anticipate their needs and/or questions.

For this particular site, page after page has been created which has drastically increased the number of clicks required by the user. If someone visits the site looking for X, I’d love for them to be able to find it after three clicks or less. That very well may be wishful thinking, but I’m thinking it’s a good baseline number to establish.

In the End

It’s important to remember that Web design isn’t just about a nice looking site; it’s also about providing a great experience for the user.

Facebook Implements “Like” and Ditches “Fan”

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You may have heard that Facebook was going to change their pages a bit so that people no longer “Become a Fan.” Instead users will now “Like” pages.

It seems as though the change has been implemented, or at least it’s getting pushed out to various users. From Facebook,

“Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site.”

They’ve gone a step further and added a second box that shows you which of your friends are a fan of your page. At first glance it seems like the new box might have some glitches, as the number seems to top out at 100.

The photo above is of mynewly created page (You should “Like” it – that just sounds funny); click it to see the changes.

Think about all of the marketing materials that have “Become a Fan” on them. Looks like it’s time to go back to the drawing board and make some edits. “Like us on Facebook” will be all the rage.

Foursquare: How Updates can add to the Conversation

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Earlier this month I wrote about foursquare and highlighted how the standard check-in updates that are pushed to Facebook and Twitter tend to bug me. Let me take a moment and clarify that just a bit.

What I was specifically referencing is when someone checks in and doesn’t add any type of commentary. For example, saying “I’m at X location” does nothing but clutter the Facebook or Twitter stream with information that really doesn’t do much for anyone. It’s just the user pushing information…

What I wasn’t referencing is when you check-in and provide some type of commentary. In my opinion, that’s a bit of information that can get a conversation started or at least have some type of value to your friends/followers.

Hope Project Discussion: Look at the Lists the Kids Made

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I previously told you about a speaking engagement that I was going to be doing for the Hope Project, a group that helps teens that have been in gangs or simply need help getting on the right path.

Rather than give you a play-by-play, I want to share some photos with you that I took after the kids took part in an exercise. What they were tasked with doing was writing down things that like to have/not have in their community, and then also write down how to go about getting those things.

Before you enlarge the photos below, take a moment and think about what you’d like to have in your “ideal” community. Seriously, give it some thought. Now, compare your thoughts with the kids. The photos are organized by the groups the kids were in. The left hand column is things they want/don’t want, and the right hand column is the solution they came up with.

More grass, more trees, less drugs/violence, new apartments (clarification – upgraded project housing)… this is the lens these kids see through.

The night was extremely worthwhile and as I was leaving one of the guys leading the group that goes by Mr.T said,

“Yeah man you did great. Some of them typically fall asleep at things like this. You had them laughing and engaged the whole time.”

I’m good with that.