Welcome to Out Of The Box, the *UP There, Everywhere blog where we give our members a chance to introduce themselves, chat a bit about what they do or simply let off steam on a topic. At UP* we don’t sit in boxes, and we kind of like the idea that it’s a space for a bit of free thinking.
How it started: Being Different
Is WordPress a good CMS tool for business web sites?
There are some hard-core web site designers who might shy away from using WordPress to develop web sites for their clients. In fact, some developers might even scoff at the notion of using WP as a CMS (content management system). They might say it’s too clunky, or not robust enough, or worse, Open Source (as if only privately branded products were worthy of investment).
However, when it comes to easy-to-use, out-of-the-box applications that put clients in the driver’s seat, there are not too many customizable CMS systems that can beat WordPress on functionality, never mind on cost. Anyone who has created a web site CMS using a privately built solution by a company who went out of business a few years later, will know what I mean about the peace of mind of using Open Source.
Why use WordPress?
Some reasons we like to build client web sites with WordPress:
1. Budget friendly. WordPress (www.wordpress.net) is an open source (free in most cases) tool that gives you complete control of the site content, but is easy to use and easy to update, can be hosted on any domain, on a secure server with as much backup and redundancy as needed.
2. SEO friendly. Sure there are other open source backend systems, but WordPress is web-based and designed for frequent updates (something that makes Search engines happy). Plugins and the right settings make it easy to control your page titles, metatags and even URLs without a lot of extra coding work.
3. Client friendly. As we said, one of the best reasons to use WordPress for a website the client wants to maintain, is that it’s so easy that even a client can do it. For clients, that means no more two-year-old web site content because IT is too busy to update their site.
4. Update friendly. Designed as a blogging tool, WordPress is essentially meant for keeping sites updated without needing to know HTML code. The simple posting features and page update tools provide multiple options for designing streaming content, news, press releases, product updates, FAQ, blogs and any other content that needs weekly, daily, even hourly or instant (streaming) updates.
5. Social and interaction friendly. With all the ready-to-use apps and plugins designed for WordPress (and an API that makes it easy to build your own) you can find (or build) nearly everything you need make any web site social-friendly with sharing tools, YouTube videos, comments, email signups, and any other interactive function you need.
6. Feature friendly. As an open source solution, WordPress is being continually updated and improved by a world-wide community of developers who add new features, plug-ins and interfaces that work with all sorts of third-party apps. That means you always have the latest and greatest in CMS possibilities available to you.
The down side
Like anything, there is, of course, a right way and a wrong way to design a WordPress page template and backend. Without proper pre-planning, it might not keep your site secure, or content private (and reviewable) before publishing. In most cases, sites built for client use will need multiple page reviews before anything is published live. That might not be an inherent feature of WordPress, but it’s definitely something that can be added in by a competent developer.
You also need to ensure that your site is built to handle any login or secure sign-in needs, data management, and of course integration with existing legacy web site systems.
But most importantly, the site backend needs to be designed with lay users in mind. For clients, not for web developers. That means content boxes that can easily be changed, code that doesn’t break when switching to HTML view (or preferably, no need to ever switch to HTML view) and image management tools that a 10-year-old can figure out.
So are we dumbing down site design? Well the backend maybe, but not the design, of course. We offer all our clients 100 percent customized designs from the ground up for their own brand needs. And we think that’s just smart.
Some examples
Need proof? Here are a few sites UP* team members have built and hosted using WordPress:
GE Western Blotting (microsite of GE Healthcare Life Sciences)
Other WordPress examples:
Share yours!
Do you have a good WordPress site design or tip to share? Tell us!
May, June and July seem to have rapidly become ‘speech time’ as I’m giving talks at events almost every week over the next few months, but I’d like to highlight three of them.
May 24th I’ll be at a destination marketing event in Jönköping calledSmartaPlatser. Here I’ll be talking about the marketing of destinations and specifically the work I’ve done with Stockholm, Arlanda Airport and Sigtuna -my home community. Looks like being a great day and some very interesting fellow presenters.
June 6th I’ve been asked to go over to Washington DC to take part in a live webinar broadcast for the journal Science. Science is the world’s leading scientific journal, read by over 750,000 scientists every week. The journal was founded by Thomas Edison, and is published by the AAAS – the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The topic is branding and digital / social media in the sciences, and it’s the very first time they have ever broadcast on such a subject. It’s a real honor to be asked to take part in such an event.
July 3rd I’ve been asked to participate in an event in the town of Visby, at Almedalen, on the beautiful island of Gotland. My speech here will focus on my branding work for Stockholm ‘The Capital of Scandinavia’ and how we can further develop the benefits of this powerful positioning.
Some references
www.smartaplatser.se/julian-stubbs-2
www.sciencemag.org/
More fury, which isn’t exactly a core Scandinavian trait, has broken out again over Stockholm as The Capital of Scandinavia. Headlines in national newspapers across Scandinavia have appeared raising the debate once more. This time the Norwegians have accused the Swedes of being too ‘kaxig’ a Swedish word that means arrogant. Exciting stuff.
Well I hate to break it to them but it was an Englishman who actually helped the Swedes become a little more ‘kaxig’. I was heading a small and good team that was responsible for developing the positioning back in 2005, so it’s rather interesting that it’s taken the Norwegians seven years to actually get worked up about it. Apparently this all came to a head a week or so ago down at MIPIM, the very large real estate conference held every year in Cannes in the south of France, where the Norwegians registered their un-happiness about it. Most real estate events tend to be accompanied by vast quantities of free food and drink, so I can imagine that after a few glasses of chilled bubbly and heated discussions, a food fight broke out and the herring started to fly. Now that would be one smelly food fight.
When we originally developed The Capital of Scandinavia work, the Danes were not exactly over the moon about it either. I had a Danish radio show ring me up and they wanted a comment. They asked me if we shouldn’t have asked permission first of Copenhagen before launching the campaign. I replied that that would be rather similar to Pepsi calling up Coke to ask permission to run an advertising campaign. Probably wouldn’t happen would it. However, I was told sometime later by a good friend, who happens to be a Dane, that the Danish unhappiness with The Capital of Scandinavia positioning had more to do with the fact that the Danes hadn’t thought of it first. But the truth is, even if they had, they couldn’t have used it even if they had wanted to. Copenhagen, fine city though it is (and the Danes do make the best bread on earth), would just not cut it as the true Scandinavian capital. Nor would Oslo which, despite being a place I really love visiting, feels more like a large friendly town than a major city. However, when in Oslo recently I did manage to buy the most expensive round of drinks I’d ever bought. The cost was more like the deposit on a small apartment.
Stockholm is the natural centre point of Scandinavia. It’s the most dynamic business region, culturally the most vibrant and geographically at the very heart of Scandinavia. Now here I have to apologise to the Finns – sorry Finland – but most of the rest of the world includes you in Scandinavia even if technically it should be defined as the Nordic region. Check any large international tourism website and it normally includes Finland in Scandinavia.
Simply put Stockholm has taken a positioning that it can rightly own. This isn’t to be confused with developing a simple slogan or tagline. A good tagline is just the creative execution that gets the core idea across based on a strong and viable positioning. BMW has claimed to be The Ultimate Driving Machine for over 35 years (being consistent and persistent in branding counts). It’s not just a slogan. It’s the creative expression of their focus on a single aspect, even a single word, when it comes to the BMW brand. Driving. If you want a real drivers car, that’s what Beemers are all about. It’s a positioning that’s helped build one of the most powerful car brands in the world.
Now we all know Scandinavia is not a country – so Stockholm as The Capital of Scandinavia is a hypothetical situation in reality. However Stockholm is the most important place for business and tourism in Scandinavia – full stop. It’s a strong and clear positioning statement.
Part of the function of a good positioning is to stake out a territory that you can rightly claim as your own. To do that you need to make a clear statement. Producing wishy washy bland generalisations just isn’t going to cut it. In doing this you will also probably tread on the toes of a few competitors and get them excited. Are Copenhagen and Oslo competitors? Of course they are in many respects when it comes to tourism and inward investment. However they are also close and important partners in the Scandinavian region as well and by working together they can help grow and advance the entire region.
As for being kaxig, or arrogant, that is something I wouldn’t advocate. However being confident is right and Swedes can sometimes be a bit too modest for their own good, so I’m proud of the fact that an Englishman has helped them stand out a little more.
Personally I’m just a bit worried that the next time I visit Norway they might not let me in.
P.S. If you want to read more about the branding of Stockholm and destinations my book Wish You Were Here goes into more detail. Available at the sites below:
As of March 30, 2012, Facebook will change the design format for all Pages to a new Timeline View. This applies both to individual pages (which used to be called “Walls”) as well as company or brand Fan Pages. With the new Timeline View format, Pages will have Insights and message notifications built into the top of the page and will offer more control over which content appears on your Page.
The New UP There Everywhere Timeline View Facebook Page
However, one change that has many Marketers upset is the elimination of Customized Landing Page Tabs. (We’ll write more on this in our next blog post). Facebook has eliminated the Landing Page feature that allows businesses to control what new visitors see when visiting the Page for the first time. The mini “websites” within Facebook are gone. The new Timeline view focuses on Facebook page streaming content, but Facebook has created more tools to control how this page looks.
Facebook explains it here in the Facebook tutorial.
So what’s changing? Many things! In addition to eliminating the Landing Pages, Facebook is focusing more on visual content – images. You may have noticed that the sizes of images with wall posts have increased to a rather large 404 by 404 pixels.
Post Control. With the new timeline view, Facebook is also giving you more control over the order of posts, and the way things appear on your Page. You can add, “star,” “Pin,” or hide posts. Posts which ware “pinned” will always appear at the top of your page. You can reorder past posts or events to select the items that are most relevant to your message. If you star a post, it will appear across the width of the page.
Cover Photo. The “Cover Photo” becomes the key feature of your page. But Facebook has created some strict rules about what is allowed in these photos. They are definitely going for a more community-feel instead of an advertising one.
For example, Facebook forbids you from including a price or purchase information in the cover photo. So forget about adding “20% off” or “special offer code” to your photo. Facebook also says you can’t include a call to action (such as “buy it now”) or include your URL in the image. They also warn that your cover photo should not ask people to “Like” or “Share” your page.
What can the photo do? Well, it can visually tell your brand’s story. If you get creative with Photoshop, you can use this valuable real estate to showcase images of your products, highlight your unique selling points or feature your people. It’s a large space ( 851 x 315 pixels!), so make it work for you.
Application Links. Photos, likes and apps are now at the top of your Page. Photos show in the first spot, but you can change the order of everything else so people see what matters most. You can show a maximum number of 12 apps, so make sure to put your most important ones first. You can customize each app’s icon with a title and an image up to 11 x 74 pixels.
Milestones. Under milestones you can highlight events in your brand’s history. Milestone images can be 843 x 403 pixels, and so they appear across the full width of your timeline. This is another chance to visually tell your brand’s story.
The Facebook Pages product guide is here.
UP admin panel facebook page
New Timeline Page Examples
Here are some examples of the new Brand Pages on Facebook.
If your knowledge of social media sites is limited to Facebook and Twitter…you’re missing the hashtag. Take a look at some of these goodies that will boost your social savvy beyond the Twittersphere:
1. Pinterest. Pinterest is an online pinboard for sharing photos of everything from food to hairstyles. The reason we included it on this list is because of the site’s “request an invitation” feature and implication that there’s a waiting list to join. We think that’s a bit of marketing genius in itself. There’s nothing like telling people they can’t join a club to get them to want to join it!
2. Gentlemint.com. To give the guys a fair shake, Gentlemint.com is a newly launched site billing itself as the “Pinterest for men.” It follows the same kind of invitation-only model but lets guys share content with a decidedly more male focus.
3. LocaFollow.com. This handy tool may just become an essential part of your PR toolkit for social media outreach by city. It helps you locate people to follow based on their location and bio.
4. Friend or Follow. Here’s another Twitter-focused service that lets you manage and filter your Twitter followers. It tells you things such as who has stopped following you and who you’re not following back. It’s a great way to boost your Twitter marketing.
5. ClickDummy. ClickDummy turns your design mockups (for web sites, mobile and software applications) into clickable prototypes to get feedback from the cloud – fast.
6. ZoomSphere.com. Similar to FameCount.com and SocialBakers.com, this free service lets you analyze your global social media stats and monitor keywords. You can also see which topics are most popular by country and check their social media trending.
7. Kurrently. This free, easy-to-use search engine lets you find out what’s being shared on Twitter and Facebook in real-time so you can join the conversation. Use it to write posts that focus on trending topics.
8. Klout. Here’s a great tool to measure the influence of your brand evangelists. Seek out key opinion leaders with social media Klout on Twitter, Facebook and Google +.
9. Skitch. Skitch is your online camera and pen. You can screen grab anything, add a note and share it quickly. The company was recently acquired by Evernote (wonder how long it will continue to be free?) It also offers Mac and Android apps.
10. Ning. What could be better than building a community around your own brand? Ning makes it possible by integrating Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Constant Contact and other services into a single online community. It’s a fee-based service but with an Alexa rank of 339, it’s the 11th most popular social media site online today (according to eBizMBA Rank) .
It’s increasingly obvious that the world needs to change and change quickly and radically. It needs to find new ways to work and new ways to do business.
Five years ago I used to spend at least three hours a day in a car, driving around 120 kilometers (70 miles) a day to and from work. I’d sit in an office with around 50 other people all of whom had made similar journey’s to ‘the office’ by one mode of transport or other and had consumed energy, in one form or another, doing so. In a typical day I would truly interact with no more than four or five people, and then have to face the commute home again, to arrive home late, tired and not particularly happy. Something needed to change in my own life.
As individuals, we all need to consider the impact humankind is having on our world and start to re-balance the effects of two hundred years of industrialization. We have to be realistic however, and appreciate the very real and positive benefits of globalization, economic growth and development. We can’t turn the clock back. We just think there has to be a better way to work and that part of the answer lies in the digital world. Mankind has always found solutions to major problems by his own ingenuity. The digital revolution has impacted how we all interact and work, and it’s making things possible now that weren’t just a few years ago.
Similarly companies and brands today need to think about their wider role in society if they wish to build a truly sustainable business. Brand building is about reputation and that must be built on something substantive and real that goes to the very roots of the business and is not just the responsibility of the communications department.
So in June 2010 we had an idea. We asked ourselves if it would be possible to create a completely new type of organization for delivering strategic and creative services using cloud based technologies?
We know that using today’s technologies, we are capable of delivering an ever-higher standard of service, with enhanced flexibility from experts whose goals are to deliver results. That’s the simple idea behind *UP There, Everywhere and it’s one of the things that makes us totally unique.
It is a completely new way of working. The dream of teams of people working remotely has been around a while, but only now is that dream becoming a reality. Our connected-community approach is helping shape this totally new way of working.
Our mission is to help change the way the world works. That’s a big mission we know, but one we believe we can achieve.
Our clients include the world’s leading scientific journal, Science, based in Washington DC. The Nobel Peace Prize Concert, in Olso Norway, and Airport City Stockholm, a major development focused on sustainability and the promotion of cleantech industries.
Maybe it’s time you looked us UP*.
www.upthereeverywhere.com
Julian Stubbs, one of the founders of UP*
I recently came across this story on Mashable back in December and then again on the BBC News website about Visit Sweden’s recent Twitter experiment, or as they called it, a social experiment. It’s titled, Curators of Sweden and the premise is that they give a different Swedish citizen control of @sweden for seven days and let them share whatever is on their mind. It’s not always pretty, but at least it’s real. Between a 22-year old writer (who hates Justin Bieber enough to Tweet about it), a priest, a teacher, and a lesbian trucker, you know that you’ll be hearing their own personal truths as to what is happening (both good and bad) in the country. I tip my hat to Visit Sweden for being daring enough to go all the way and encourage a conversation between its citizens and the rest of the world. Whether it’s called a social experiment or a publicity stunt, I’m pretty sure it’ll do its job well in increasing awareness about Sweden and lead to more curious tourists.
This leads me into something that has always perturbed me about so many companies who groom their Facebook and Twitter pages and delete offensive comments or worse yet, have their homepage locked down to exclude what their fans or customers are saying. These pages should encourage dialog and should be about an exchange, not a one way platform to announce sales or carefully crafted marketing messages. No matter what you do — like it or not — your fans/customers will find a way to say what they want to. It’s up to you to learn how to respond in a way that makes you look like you’re in control and that you actually care about what’s being said on your behalf. It’s always better to listen to a negative comment and if possible fix a problem. By successfully fixing a problem in front of your fans, you will do far more for your reputation than trying to ignore it.
Follow @sweden
Just a few short hours before the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Concert, the artists and hosts gathered to discuss why participating in this much-anticipated annual event was important to them. The media had a chance to engage the celebrities in questions about their thoughts on world peace and the contributions of the year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Two UP* members, including myself, were lucky enough to attend the press conference and hear the celebrities talk about what the Concert means to them.
Concert Artists and Hosts, including Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Angelique Kidjo, Helen Mirren , Janelle Monae, David Gray, Rosario Dawson, and Amy Lee of Evanescence, were among the celebrities at the pre-Concert Press Conference..
Attending the press conference were representatives from more than 50 Norwegian and international media outlets and the Concert performers, including Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Anquelique Kidjo, Helen Mirren, Janelle Monae, David Gray, Rosario Dawson, and Amy Lee.
Press Conference Highlights
Here are some of the highlights from the Press Conference (some answers have been edited by blog author):
Q: How can the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in general, and this year in particular, represent the Laureates?
A: (Committee Member): Through the annual Concert, the Nobel Committee tries to present the message about peace in a context that can reach groups in many countries that we wouldn’t be able to reach otherwise. This is by far the most popular Nobel program being made either in Oslo or Stockholm. The reason is the people we see here on the stage. Thank you for being here to represent us in this way.
Q: How can this Concert inspire women all over the world?
A: (Ellen Mirren): At least two of these Peace Prize winners, Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkol Karman, started so small, with small grass roots movements. Sometimes in life, you come to a point where there is no alternative for you. It doesn’t matter how small you start. The first thing that greets you is being mocked, laughed at, told not to be absurd. But the tenacity of these women who put their heads down and got it done, is remarkable. We know that women around the world are treated terrible. Yet most people around the world don’t do anything about it. These women do. They did something about it. I am not an activist myself; I am an artist, so I really admire anyone, women especially, who do something to affect change.
Q: Do any of the stories of these women resonate with you or have a special meaning to you?
A: (Angelique Kidjo): When you’re a girl in Africa you grow up without an identity of your own. Your family has the right to marry you to any man they want to. Fortunately, I was born to a family that valued education. My father was determined that both the girls and boys, but especially the girls, would have an education. He met criticism by the society. They said “Why send the girls to school? Marry them and you can make money.” He said in response to them: “They are not merchandise…they are people.”
It is a recognition of all those silent African women about what they are doing silently in their every day lives. So that’s why this Peace Prize is so important. I hope this Nobel Peace Prize will inspire the men who love the women to do something — to come together to help women be recognized as people.
Q: Do you have a message to young people of the world?
A: (Rosario Dawson): By age 13, I was getting interested in politics. 13-15 is a time of idealism and passion. Around that age, I became passionate about the ideals I thought mattered. The idealism of youth is absolutely precious, and the only way that change comes about.
We were pretty poor growing up…we moved into an abandoned building. My activities started really early around homelessness and HIV. My first campaign alone was to “save the streets.” … I am surprised when I hear people say that kids are not interested in politics. And I have to say, “Did you ask them? I’m sure if you asked them they would have a lot to say.”
Q: How does this concert make you think about politics and the world?
A: (Amy Lee, Evanescence): I think it is really amazing that we get to be the soundtrack for a really important, really emotional thing. We are all in this together. It’s not one person’s problems. We are all humans in this together. To me, that is what music is. It’s feeling all the same things together. Music is beyond languages. It’s the things you can’t say just with words.
A: (Ellie Golding): It is so inspiriting to to see that these women were chosen. The fact that we all get to be here together so do something so remarkable. Being in the same room, you feel something so magical. You feel the power being the same room. That’s why I started crying. Even if only a few people watch the performances, to be associated with it is an amazing thing. I am so honored to be part of that.
Q: How is that to be especially chosen for a Peace Prize Concert by a laureate?
A: (Ahmed Fahti): (with translator): I am happy to participate in this concert. I am happy Tawakkul Karman got this prize; she really deserves it. When I started the working on music for this concert, I was influenced by Mother Theresa. … Yesterday I played the first part of the music for the first time using the lute. …I am pleased that we can perform music to explain the importance of peace to the world.
A Moment in History. December 10th 2011 & The Nobel Peace Prize.
This years joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize gave three powerful lectures yesterday in the impressive setting of Oslo City Hall. It was a moment in history and I was fortunate enough to be there and witness it in person.
This year’s award was won jointly by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the president of Liberia, Leymah Gbowee, the Liberian peace activist, and Yemeni pro-democracy campaigner Tawakkol Karman.
They were recognised for their “non-violent struggle” for women’s safety and for women’s rights to participate in peace-building work. I felt however that there was a fourth woman present on the stage. A woman who represents all woman on earth who have suffered through domestic and international conflicts. That for me was the significance of the prize this year being given to these three courageous woman.
I was there because *UP There, Everywhere has been working with the Nobel Peace Prize Concert since March this year. We have developed a new graphic identity for the concert as well as a website with social media interface for this globally televised event. The Nobel Peace Prize Concert is one of the world’s great events and the opportunity to work on such a prestigious project and play a small part is without doubt a highlight for us at UP*.
I’ve spent the last six months going over to Oslo at regular intervals and heading UP our international team, which has been based in Scandinavia and the US, who have worked on the new identity. The new logotype in black and red features the Gold Norwegian Nobel Peace medal. We had to work hard to maintain the heritage of Nobel, whilst creating an identity that’s appropriate for such a contemporary musical concert and celebration.
The new website (www.nobelpeaceprizeconcert.org) reflects the new re-designed brand image of the Nobel Peace Prize Concert and presents an updated, modern public face for this annual contemporary music concert. The new site incorporates interactive features such as videos and social media sharing options, with Facebook and You Tube, that were not part of the previous site as well as working on the SEO.
For more information about *UP There, Everywhere visit www.upthereeverywhere.com. UP* can also be found on Facebook at UpThereEverywhere , Twitter at @UP_For_It and Linked In: www.linkedin.com/company/up-there-everywhere. Read more about the where the name *UP There, Everywhere originated on the web site’s blog “Being Different. Want to see what makes UP* truly different from other advertising agencies- even international ones? Watch the film. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZVyiSw4Sng
The Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway is just a few days away, and it’s a very exciting time for several of us at *UP There, Everywhere. Not only because we are thrilled about going to the Concert (we are). Or because we expect it will be a fantastic show and amazing experience (it will). Nor just because we applaud the efforts of everyone who works toward world peace (we do).
To us, Nobel is more than just a Prize, or a symbol of peace, or a Concert. It’s a brand that we are proud to be connected to, if only in a small way. More than just a client, Nobel represents a feeling we have about the kind of work we do. The level of service and spirit of honest giving we try to bring to all our projects. The Nobel Peace Prize Concert is a way to bring the world together – to share an experience, a celebration– to be connected for a moment in a way that only art can do.
I suppose that to some people, a website may not seem like a work of art. But to us, it is. At least this one is. Take a look at it: nobelpeaceprizeconcert.org. We think the new site brings a sense of excitement and prestige to the Concert that it well deserves. And it makes the artists and hosts of the Concert accessible to people around the world who want to feel connected to the idea of world peace.
Like the Concert itself, the new website is a joyous celebration. It’s a happy feeling, and we hope you can feel it too. Even if only for a day.
Next:
We’ll share more about the Concert (on Dec. 11), the Press Conference, and the website project next week!
