What Do You Want to Know?

Cute, right?

I might be letting the cat out of the bag (which an expression that I've never really understood because I don't know why you'd put a cat in a bag, ever, but I'll go with it), but I'm pretty stoked about Ektron's sixth annual Synergy Conference this November. It's always a great opportunity to mingle with clients and prospective clients as well as Ektron implementation and technology partners.

However, this year's lineup of speakers is pretty damn impressive. You've got one of the top Digital authorities, an extremely well-respected author credited with creating the concept of Mobile First, the engine behind C-SPAN.org and the freakin Godfather of Responsive Web Design, among others. 

I'm honored to announce that I will be putting my name up alongside theirs (though I really need to work on a tagline -- is "Creator of Everything Awesome, and Bacon", taken already?). Which leads to my question -- what do you want to know?

I know that you're all dying to tap into the bottomless pit of wisdom that is my brain, so I'll reign it back a little and share that my session is going to be focused around social media strategies and trends, and how Ektron can support these initiatives (is that generic enough to leave mistique around it?). What could I talk about that would guarantee your interest in attending my session above all others (because after all, all that really matters is who's session has the most attendees)?

I can promise the following:

• I will answer any question about any topic that you can think of, because that's what usually happens with social media
• I'm going to create a hashtag just for my session, cuz I'm like that
• I will quote (or use lyrics in an analogous way) from at least one song from the 80's, 90's, and 00's (and I am open to requests)
• There might be prizes (also open to requests)
• I will actively encourage you during the session to constantly check your mobile device (but only for social media purposes, and only if you're saying nice things about me!)
• There might be a special guest or two
• There might be booze (ok, that's a lie, but it's a good way to boost attendance).

The conference is in Washington, D.C. (REGISTER HERE) and starts the day after that little election thing. If you can make it, I guarantee it will, if nothing else, be entertaining...

So, what do you want to know?

Be sure to look for Tweets with the hashtag #EktronSynergy for the latest!

You Can Have It All

I'm prefacing this commentary by saying that I've had a lot of time in the car the past two days and not a lot of sleep (anyone connected to me on FB and Twitter can attest that I've produced some odd posts in the past 48 hours) And while you may be tempted to think that I'm getting up on my soap box, in reality, I'm just speaking freely, which last I checked, is still allowed (for now).

You can have it all. Everything your little heart desires can be yours. Wealth. Love. Bears season tickets. All of these can be had. That's what makes this country so freakin' great.

If you're willing to work harder than the next guy, you can drive a BMW and live in an upscale neighborhood.

If you send the girl you're crazy about flowers every day, eventually she'll let you buy her dinner and who knows what'll happen from there.

And while the waiting list is long, you can eventually get your hands on some Bears season tickets (or take the shortcut and buy someone else's via Stubhub).

The point is, you can have it all. The only thing stopping you, is you.

Well wait, that's kind of a dick thing to say. Yes, I know. But we really are the ones that get in the way of helping us find what truly makes us happy. Whether it's work or romance or whatever, the only thing stopping you from getting what you want, is you.

I mean, who says you can't have your cake and eat it to? I'm pretty certain Obama hasn't signed that into law yet!

And as such, I think there are four common attributes that separate those who get it, from those who want it.

Number 1: Don't Be Afraid
Let me clarify -- it's ok to be afraid of snakes, they're scary as hell. And the people that wrap them around their neck or wrestle with them deserve what they get (but that's another blog post entirely).

You cannot be successful if you live in fear. If you're concerned that saying the wrong thing will cost you your job or cause your girlfriend to break up with you, get out of that situation now because it's bound to end poorly (and when it does, it likely won't be your decision).

To be successful, you have to have the confidence to know that if she kicks you out, you'll find a better girl waiting for you. If your employer gives you the pink slip, know that one door is closing, but another is opening.

I have a good friend who started an unpaid internship with a very prominent organization a few months back. During the internship, he was offered a position at another firm, and was prepared to accept. However, he decided to ask the company he was interning with if they wanted to offer him a full-time position and they did because they didn't want to lose him. Since then, he's been promoted and has the job he dreamed about, less than a year after going back to school. If he had been afraid to ask and settled for that other job, he wouldn't be nearly as happy as he is today.

So don't be afraid, because if you can't ask small questions in life, you definitely can't ask big ones... And the people that want it all, know how to ask (and receive the answers they want) to big questions. Hearing "No" doesn't hurt quite as bad as you think.

Number 2: Put Yourself Out There
I've met a lot of great people in the past decade since I've been in the work force. But some of the best are the people I've met as a member of the Social Media Club of Chicago. Not only have I made some great contacts from a professional standpoint, I've met some truly wonderful people that I now consider great friends.

The other night I was at an SMC event and I met a couple of really talented people that were in transition career-wise. Super talented. Lucky to be had on any team. But they hadn't found the right opportunity yet. In hearing their stories and talking about them with other people, we made a handful of new connections on Linked In and even talked about some opportunities that they weren't aware of.

They weren't afraid to put themselves out there and because of it, I have a feeling that they're not going to be looking for work when the next SMC event (Aug 23, #SMCChicago for details) rolls around in a few weeks.

Number 3: Help Others and Help Yourself
I had the opportunity to have lunch with a very prominent VP of Marketing that has held numerous high profile titles. We connected on Linked In and he was gracious enough to share some of his time with me. And do you know what the first thing he said to me was? It was "how can I help you?"

You see, it's important to take care of good ole #1, but getting everything you want often entails helping others. He had no (real) reason to meet with me, but he took the meeting. He had no motive to help me (we had no prior history), but he had a profound impact on me and for that, I'm happy to support any endeavors that he needs help with.

I've helped a number of former colleagues land on their feet and it makes me feel good inside, but it also leads me to believe that if I ever need help, they'll be there for me. Donate your time (and money -- if you can), helping others is so simple, yet so powerful.

Number 4: Don't Complain About What You Don't Have
<begin soap box rant> I'm not interested in getting into a political discussion or anything, but I am rather tired of listening to people complain about the things they don't have.

This country was founded on the principle that if you work hard, you can spend your damn money on whatever you want. You don't like the guy driving the pimped out Mercedes, fine, but don't be mad at him, he didn't do anything to you. He worked his ass off and it is his right as an American to spend his money however foolishly he wants to.

Successful people don't waste time worrying about what they don't have and instead focus on how they're going to get what they want. If you want that Mercedes or even if you just want to be more comfortable living the way you want to it, take some night classes, pick up a second job, go after that promotion -- you will get there.

<end soap box rant>

If you work hard, if you out hustle the competition, if you put yourself out there, if you help others, if you're more persistent, if you're not afraid; you will succeed, and nothing will be able to stop you. So don't be afraid, meet new people, help others, ask the hard questions -- you will be more successful in whatever you're trying. We only get one lap around this track in life, so try to make it as good/fun/romantic/indulgent as you can.

Off to bed...

Follow me @jonmkee on Twitter, connect with me on Linked In, and hunt me down on any of the other social networking channels. And if you're an SMC-er, definitely come say hello if you see me at the next event.

Put Down Your Phone (And Play With Your Kids)

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of watching my nephew's little league game. He's eight, going on nine, and this is the third year of organized baseball he's played.

It was a fun game (even though they don't really keep score) because he got a couple of hits (they're only allowed singles unless it goes to the outfield on a fly, which is apparently, near impossible) and even made a play in the field.

But it got me thinking -- when I was his age, we were way more advanced than they are (and this was validated by my father (his grandfather), who coached my two brothers and I at various levels).

Let's start by looking at the basic rule differences:

• Coaches pitch the first three innings in hopes of being able to play a full 6 inning game in the two hour time limit.
• No team can score more than 5 runs in any one inning.
• You can't advance more than one base at a time, unless the ball is hit to the outfield (as I mentioned above).
• No leadoffs/stealing/pickoffs.
• If during the final three kid-pitch innings, a pitcher walks two batters in a row, the coach then has to come out and pitch.
• No batter can see more than a total of 7 pitches.
• Strikes are rarely called.

In my day, at the same age, and even though it was my first year of baseball, the corresponding rules were as follows:

• Kids pitched all innings; if you walked a batter, they got to hit off a tee.
• There was no limit to the number of runs you could score and in fact, there was a "slaughter" rule that allowed the game to end early if one team was really beating the other.
• We kept score.
• Coaches coached.
• We could leadoff/steal/get picked off/thrown out.
• Time limit was rarely an issue, unless we were tied and needed extra innings.
• We played actual baseball

And as I made a smart ass comment to my brother about the team's relative lack of ability, he remarked "well, we didn't have the Wii and Xbox and iPhones, we actually went out and actually practiced baseball (as opposed to virtually)."

And I think that's part of it.

But I also think that in general, we as parents are more to blame than the kids. I don't know a single kid that would rather be told to go play video games by themselves instead of going to play ball (or dolls or whatever) with their mom/dad/grandparents/uncles/whomever, even though that's sometimes an easy way to kill time.

And as I pushed by almost two year old on the swing at the park last night, it hit me -- every parent at the park was glued to their smart phone or tablet. Rather than pushing a swing or kicking a soccer ball, they were consuming information and missing out on an opportunity to play with their child.

It all made sense -- the kids are less advanced at sports (and probably other things) not because they're terrible athletes (well, not all of them at least), but because instead of teaching them, they're having to learn from playing the Wii or watching TV or researching on the internet. We're failing them.

Now look, I'm far from the Father of the Year and am at times guilty of this myself, but after this chain of events from the weekend, I've made the conscious decision to keep my phone in my pocket whenever the kids are around. As great as it is to be up to date on everything, I owe it to my kids to give them everything I have.

And yes, this is me on my soapbox. But to all my friends out there, please know that I won't be checking email, playing Words, texting, or checking Facebook when I'm with the kids (unless I'm posting/sharing something about them) from now on.

I'm calling this my #PutDownYourPhone campaign and will be using the corresponding twitter hashtag as appropriate. Please feel free to do the same whenever you see someone using their phone to check Facebook instead of playing with their kids. Or, when you realize that you got to do something great with your kids instead of playing on your phone/tablet.

And yes, I realize that this is totally hypocritical from someone that sells web software that enables mobile delivery -- but I think in this case, it's totally worth it.

It really got me thinking and maybe it will you too. And if it doesn't, it just means that my daughters will kick your son's ass all over the baseball diamond from day one...

What Makes a Successful Partnership

Many readers already know, but prior to coming to Ektron, I spent about a decade working at a digital agency in the Chicago area. I had a great run there and the company I left was vastly different (in a good way) from the company that first hired me out of school.

In 2005, we decided to became an Ektron partner and I served as the primary contact for our relationship. This means that I've been on both sides of the table once as an Ektron partner and now as an Ektron employee, and I'd like to believe that it gives me a pretty good perspective on what it takes to maximize the experience of being an Ektron partner.

Back Story

When I started at WSOL, we were a five person operation that was very dependent on a few big clients. We offered a lot of services and became a one-stop shop for customers.

We were really good at a lot of things, but weren’t experts in any specific area. We were the prototypical jack of all trades, master of none.

We had even begun building our own content management system (CMS) and it was doing pretty well. The problem was, even though we were growing, we knew that we needed a way to differentiate ourselves from the other 10,000 agencies out there.

Then it happened.

We received an RFP that had a list of requirements fifty pages long. As we read through it, we knew that we couldn’t address all of the items with our internal CMS and needed something bigger. Our tech leads started doing some research and that led us to Ektron.

When I shared the RFP with Ektron, they sent me some collateral that literally looked like it was copied and pasted into the RFP. And even though we didn’t win the deal, we were excited about all the things that Ektron could do and decided that it was a direction we needed to go.

Fast forward a few years (and a couple hundred Ektron implementations) and WSOL is one of Ektron’s top partners, was named Ektron's Partner of the Year in 2009, and has almost ten times the number of employees from when I started. It’s a great story and they’re primed to continue building on this success for years to come.

The first project I sold at WSOL was a $1,500 website project. The last project I sold was an Ektron-driven site that cost more than $300,000. That’s serious growth.

I Told You That Story to Tell You This One

The same thing can happen to your business. Let me say that again: it can happen to you.

You may have started your agency with the goal of being a 10-15 person shop, extremely selective about which projects you took on, and able to foster an environment where everyone knows they have a job until retirement. And that’s awesome.

But many organizations have the goal of growing larger and working on bigger brand accounts and projects, however, they simply don't know how to get there. Considering Ektron as the vehicle to do so is a great place to start.

So, what makes a partnership successful? Here are five things that I feel most contributed to us building (and maintaining) a successful business partnership:

1. View the relationship as an investment, because it is. There's no such thing as a free lunch. If you're not committed to making this a successful component of your business, it won't be. And that goes for Ektron too. It's one of the reasons we have Regional Partner Managers who's primary purpose is to support our partners with anything they need. We need to invest in each other to be successful.
2. Understand that relationships are personal, but transactions are business. It’s great to build long-term friendships with the people you work with (and I have with a number of people that I now work with at Ektron or that work at other organizations that I met via Ektron), but it’s important to be able to separate the deal from the personal relationship. I could get into a screaming match with our regional manager at Ektron on a Friday afternoon, then have an account planning meeting with him on Monday morning and you’d never know. Separate the personal element from the business element.
3. Be cognitive and respectful of each other’s goals. It’s important that people from both organizations have an understanding of each other's goals. If as a sales person I really need this deal in Q2, but you’re not willing to help motivate the client to move on it, that can have a negative impact. Look, if there’s no chance of the deal coming, no problem, you won’t hear a complaint from me. But if the client is willing to get it done sooner, and it would be a big help to me, we should be working together to get it done. Helping each other out in instances like this will only make us want to work together on more opportunities.
4. Leverage the available resources. Ektron has a complete team of solution consultants, sales reps, best practice engineers, support agents, and more that are available to support partners. Don’t be afraid to ask for help – that’s what they’re here for. For a while, I had a few key contacts from Ektron on AIM so that I could pop them with quick questions and they always responded promptly. I knew that they really wanted me (and my customer) to be successful, and I felt valued.
5. Partnership is a two way street. If one partner feels like they’re doing all the heavy lifting, creating all the leads, etc., it’s not going to lead to a successful partnership. Clearly define the goals and expectations for both parties upfront and strategize as to how you can best meet them. There’s no better feeling that reaching a goal and having a few beers to celebrate this kind of accomplishment.

Ektron’s partner network is growing and whether you’re a growing SMB or a top 100 agency, building an Ektron practice can have a very positive impact on your customer’s satisfaction and your bottom line. If you'd like to discuss anything I've outlined here, please feel free to reach out and I'll be happy to chat with you about my experience.

Follow me at @jonmkee on Twitter. Connect with me on Linked In. Friend me on Google Plus or Foursquare too.

What Ektron Marketing Optimization Means To Your Bottom Line

Admit it. You often find yourself amazed at what you see during a software demonstration. You’re likely seeing things that you haven’t seen before or in some cases, weren’t aware that doing them was even possible. And while the core web content management (WCM) capabilities are a good place to start and are usually a modest, if not substantial improvement from your current system, it’s when we get into the really cutting edge stuff that your interest is highest.

If you’ve followed my writing for a while, you’ll know that I strongly endorse test driving an application thoroughly before investing in it. It’s really the only way to validate all the things you see in a flashy demo. Selfishly though, we recommend an evaluation because Ektron has a really deep solution and sometimes the things that differentiate us become most apparent when you take time to peel back the layers.

But that aside, every software vendor has a slick demo – without one, we’re dead in the water, right? If we can’t make the product do crazy cool things, how could you expect it to stand up to your unique requirements? And in the case of WCM, often the glitziest portion of the demo revolves around marketing optimization. But, it’s here that you need to exercise the most caution.

But it worked when the guy showed it.

One of the reasons Ektron strongly encourages in-depth software evaluations is so that clients can really understand what it takes to configure the software, customize it, and build with it. What you see in a demonstration may be something that took a few days to build or the result of a team of 10 working round the clock for six months. You’ll never know without digging deeper.

When it comes to marketing optimization, most WCM tools have some flavor of conversion optimization built in. With Ektron, it centers on our Content Targeting and Personalization toolset. These tools allow business users to configure rules and conditions around what content should be displayed given some pre-defined criteria.

For example:

• If a visitor searches ‘baseball bats’ in Google, when they land on the sporting goods store’s site, Ektron will display a promo for the latest Louisville Sluggers (a major bat manufacturer).
• If a visitor comes directly from a competitor’s site to yours, Ektron can display a ‘Product Comparison’ matrix so that they can easily find your corresponding product.
• If a user receives a newsletter from Marketo, Eloqua, or whomever you may use for email marketing, Ektron can personalize content so that even though they’re visiting the same URL as someone that’s just browsing the site, the experience is tailored to them because they arrived from the newsletter.

It’s this kind of personalization that is changing the web (for the better), yet most WCM packages don’t have any level of support for it yet. And the ones that do are typically extremely complex to use. That’s where Ektron stands out.

Ektron’s Content Targeting allows a user to leverage “drag and drop” tools to build a page and configure rules for the different content objects (you can see an example of how this works). Other WCM tools have tuning engines, dials, and other instruments that might look easy to use, but are terribly difficult and time consuming to configure. And that’s why most users that select these other tools, never even end up using those features.

Ok, so how does this help me increase conversions?

Analytics are a great thing. The web is one of the few instances in business where analytics can pretty concretely tell the story. Think about what a conversion costs and what a conversion is worth to you. If you’re like most organizations, a 2% to 4% conversion rate is ideal, but in actuality, you’re likely not even achieving those rates. So let’s say that you’re achieving a 2% conversion rate – what would doubling that mean to your bottom line?

Think about it. If instead of being greeted with the same generic banner on each visit, you were personalizing content based on the context of that user’s visit, isn’t that going to drastically increase their likelihood to venture further into your website? And when they click on the banner and we now know what they searched to find the site, and which URLs they’ve viewed on your site, being able to personalize that experience is going to help increase the potential conversion, won't it? Of course it will.

Take our sporting goods customer example above. On most websites, regardless of how that user finds the site, they’re greeted with a generic banner (or rotating slides or whatever). They have to search the navigation to find the item they’re looking for. Then, they might have to click in a few levels deep to get to the product level, and eventually they’ll get to the product they’re looking for.

With an Ektron built site, you can leverage the information you’re gathering during a user’s visit to constantly personalize the experience specifically for that user. It’s not only going to lead to increased conversions, but it’s going to lead to a better user experience and a happier customer. And because you’ll be able to track these patterns (and pass this data to your CRM), it will help you discover improvements in the overall information architecture that can improve upon the site’s overall usability. Plus, it's really, really easy, and that's what makes Ektron's offering in this area a leader.

Follow me at @jonmkee on Twitter. Connect with me at Jon Kee on Linked In. Friend me on Google Plus or Foursquare too.

Maximizing Customer Engagement with Technology

I attended a joint presentation between Ektron, Rightpoint, and Microsoft this week that touched on a couple of really interesting topics. From the Ektron standpoint, we focused on personalization -- tailoring the user experience to improve engagement.

With Rightpoint, they talked about employee engagement via social intranets and really, if you can make your company feel (and act) like a family, the rewards are limitless.

And of course our good friends at Microsoft chimed in with information about how the Azure Cloud can support all of these initiatives.

It got me thinking, how much is your company really focused on customer engagement? I know that you have to devote resources to new product/service development, but improving the methods in which you target/retain/communicate with clients (and prospective clients) can be just as (if not more) effective. And that's what my newest In a Minute is all about. If you're looking for ways to improve the way you engage with current and prospective customers, give it a look.

As always, your comments are appreciated and if you have any suggestions for a future post, I’m all ears. Thanks for stopping by.

Follow me at @jonmkee on Twitter, friend me on G+, link to me on Linked In -- I'm always looking to connect with other bright people.

And now for something completely different

Now that I am, ahem, a published blogger on Ektron.com, I decided that now was the perfect time for me to transition my personal blog from being all about Ektron to something that more resembles a collage of the thoughts that fill my head. Hence, the quasi-rebranding of this space. Never fear, there will still be plenty of Ektron-goodness here, but I’ll also sprinkle in some other non-Ektron topics from time to time.

Some things I can promise about this space:

This is what happens in my home state!

• Politics – There won’t discussion of any here. I enjoy talking about politics and watching all the fun that comes along with it transpire, but if you ask for my opinion, it’ll simply be that I’m voting for the person with the best plans, who knows how to make a tough decision, and is less likely to be corrupted then the other person – if you can identify that candidate, mark me down as impressed.
• Sports – I follow the same 4-5 teams that I have since I was a kid and am as loyal and faithful as they come. Perhaps we’ll bond more though in that I fully support the hatred of ‘evil’ teams like the Yankees, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the Duke Blue Devils – they could all go away as far as I’m considered. I probably won’t write much about these teams specifically, but I do use sports analogies a lot, so consider yourself forewarned.
• Entertainment – I enjoy shows that make me think, and ones that don’t as well. That said, I’m 100% not into Jersey Shore, the Bachelor, or most of the other reality stuff (save Temptation Island, the greatest reality show premise ever), so I can promise you this will be the only reference to Snooki that you’ll ever see here.
• Technology – Tech is what I know, inside and out, with more than a decade’s experience in everything from web design and development, to CMS, to CRM, to support and hosting – I can promise you I’ll cover that. I’ve helped roll out major deployments for Fortune 500 clients, large associations, mid-market shops, and even SMBs. I’m happy to share information around these experiences if they can help you with your project(s), whether they involve Ektron or not.

So, that’s kind of where I’m at on this. One of the other things that you can definitely count on is updates to a video series that I call ‘In a Minute’. I usually post one or two of these each month and they’re meant to provide a quick 60 second look a hot topic.

In fact, here is the latest addition to that series, “How Often is Too Often”, which helps provide guidance on how much is too much (or too little) when it comes to updating your website, your social channels, and more.

As always, your comments are appreciated and if you have any suggestions for a future post, I’m all ears. Thanks for stopping by.