Recently, I read a book called “Be Unreasonable” which made a point that resonated with me. The author, Paul Lemberg, decries the age old reliance on “best practices” and convinced me, as the title of this post states, that best practices… aren’t.
How’s that?
Think about it… “Best Practice is an idea that asserts that there is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive or reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc.” (from Wiktionary)
Best practices for any given business are assumed to work in other similar businesses. While this may be true (or not) the danger is, once best practices are adopted, innovation stops, testing takes a back seat, and “ant mentality” begins.
As we all know, ants like to follow each other. We always assume that the ant at the front of the line knows where he is going. However, as I was catching a dose of NPR the other day I heard scientists had stumbled upon an entire colony of ants who were following each other in one giant circle. In a matter of days the entire ant colony starves to death.
It occurred to me that relying on so called best practices can lead a company in a similar situation.
Not only can you get caught erroneously following another company’s lead, but relying on a set of best practices might “trick” you into permanently following your old semi-successful (or unsuccessful) self… all the while thinking you are on your way to the top.
Instead of Best Practices
No, I am not about to give you a set of best practices for avoiding best practices. Rather, I’ll tell you what works for us.
We test new ideas, track returns and keep the operating manual light.
For example, the world of social marketing is full of well intentioned purists who think a Facebook profile set up solely for the purpose of marketing is an outrageous social faux pas, or at the very least… NOT Best Practice. Personally, I think we will begin to see more and more successful “engineered” Facebook marketing campaigns that are entertaining or compelling enough to be acceptable to the general audience. If we relied on conventional best practices, we would not test our intuition, and, miss out on a great innovative success story for a client.
Bottom line is… If you have joined the bandwagon that is social marketing, don’t let ANYONE strap you down to a set of guidelines or a list of tasks. There are no rules that are hard and fast correct for every person. Learn from what’s worked for others but create your own path.
About the Author: Mike Seidle
Mike Seidle is a leading Internet marketing strategist and has been helping companies with search engine optimization and developing cost effective Internet marketing strategies since 1998. Mike is a one of the founders of Professional Blog Service and currently serves on Professional Blog Service's board of directors.
Tags: ant death spiral, ants, best practices, Paul Lemberg, Social Media
Posted in Business Blogging, Opinion, ProBlogService, Social Media, Social Networks | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
There are about a million items a business blog could have, but the essentials make up a short list. Some essentials relate to blog structure, others relate to the message you provide on key pages. Get the following 12 essentials right and your business blogging will get serious results.
Also, be sure to check out the bonus 3 at the bottom of the list.
Business Blog Essentials
1. The purpose of every blog post/page is clear to visitors.
2. A homepage that clearly conveys the blog’s offerings & purpose.
3. Easy to find breadcrumb navigation.
4. Obvious links. (Underlined Links are what we have been using for years. Don’t reinvent the web.)
5. Copy (content) written for the general public. (3rd-5th grade level)
6. All options and next steps are obvious.
7. Free of any wording or imagery that is unnecessary, confusing or distracting.
8. Consistent with icons, buttons, menus and links. (Make sure they look and work the same no matter what.)
9. A site wide search feature which logs search queries.
10. A short sales funnel which tells people what they are getting, what it costs and how to buy it.
11. A “printer friendly” link for content or a style sheet for print media so pages look good on screen and off the printer.
12. Quality assurance system to fix broken links, spelling errors and other items.
Bonus: Three Deadly Mistakes
Not putting descriptive titles and alt tags on pictures and links.
Failing to do so means search engines and people with visual impairments may not be able to use your site.
Reinventing the web.
Make your website look like a website and not like a high end print brochure.
Forgetting that some people have slow connections.
There are a lot of users in offices where the shared T1 is slow or who have an old-fashioned modem at home.
About the Author: Mike Seidle
Mike Seidle is a leading Internet marketing strategist and has been helping companies with search engine optimization and developing cost effective Internet marketing strategies since 1998. Mike is a one of the founders of Professional Blog Service and currently serves on Professional Blog Service's board of directors.
Tags: best practices, blog design, blogging, business blogging, navigation, post, web site, website navigation
Posted in Business Blogging | 1 Comment »
There has been a lot of news lately on how companies are really not hiring right now. A recent report talks about how a companies are hiring temp workers, but they are not hiring them to stay. In the past, a common practice was to test drive a worker then offer them a position. Hiring them as full-time employees is not happening right now.
