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Search
- April 30, 2012
Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce's 40 Under 40
Last week I spoke at the Abbotsford Chamber of Commerce alongside other previous recipients of Business in Vancouver's 40 Under 40 designation.
Though asked to share some of my keys to success, I can never separate Success from Purpose. Success looks much different when it flows from purpose, rather than standing as an entity pursued on its own. For me this purpose has always stemmed both two things: the feeling that life is an amazing gift and a passion for the underdog.
I began Domain7 to help a non-profit organization bring their voice to the web. Since then I've spent 15 years—with the talent and support of an incredible team—creating practical solutions for clients (often underdogs) online.
At their core, every problem we face in our work is a Human problem. I think the Web opens up a world of creative opportunities to solve those problems—it levels the playing field and gives everyone a voice. We all have equal access to the internet. It gives great opportunities to underdogs.
In our work and life, it's too easy...
- April 24, 2012
On teamwork and personal opinions
Recently I've been researching how people with strong opinions (and often differing opinions) can work together as a team to come up with great solutions. I boiled it down to five factors:
1. Unity of vision. Establishing unity of vision within a team is super important. It helps to overcome flame wars and infighting over specific ways of doing things or technologies. If you provide a true north that everyone agrees upon, it's easier to develop an understanding for team members that don't share your opinions.
2. Slow to judge. Don't judge something until you fully understand its benefits and shortcomings—especially in comparison to your current preferences, wherein lies an existing, festering bias. Don't get defensive and fill up with FUD when someone mentions a new technology or methodology to you. Posture yourself to be excited and eager to see how it could potentially be an improvement. Give it a good shake before drawing conclusions.
3. Eager to learn. This means being flexible, curious, open, and adventurous in your pursuit of perfection. The web changes too frequently for...
- April 17, 2012
We're hiring a Support Team Developer
[NOTE: We updated this post to include full or part-time candidates, in any of our three office locations: Abbotsford, Vancouver or Washington, DC]
We're adding a Support Team Developer in one of our Abbotsford, Vancouver or Washington DC offices in either a half-time or full-time capacity. We are looking for a candidate who will assist Dan Barczi and the rest of our Support team in responding to ongoing client needs and deliver quality, efficient solutions for our clients.
The role can be summed up as such:
Help delight our clients through quick, quality support work, helping our team manage multiple requests and conflicting priorities and ensuring these tasks are completed efficiently and accurately.
The Support team at Domain7 is an important piece of the development life-cycle. We are looking for a Support Team Developer experienced in developing and/or supporting web projects and digital marketing campaigns. We are currently looking to fill this position half-time with a potential path to full-time employment.This individual will respond to a broad range of requests coming from clients, including front-end HTML/CSS updates,...
- April 15, 2012
SEO, meet Content Marketing—your new boss.
Much has been said lately about the idea that SEO (search engine optimization) is no longer relevant. Some industry pundits have even gone so far as to succinctly state provocatively that 'SEO is Dead'. The proponents of this school of thought will often point to comments like this one Matt Cutts, the Head of the anti-spam team at Google, recently made at SXSW:
“ All those people are doing (for lack of a better word) over-optimization, versus making great content and a great site. We are trying to make GoogleBot smarter, make our relevance better, and we are also looking for those who abuse it—like too many keywords on a page—or exchange way too many links, or go well beyond what you normally expect. ”
In recent years, experts from the search engine world have strongly downplayed the traditional tactical mix we know collectively as “SEO”: link-building, keyword-stuffing, an unnatural fascination with PageRank, etc. All of this is now considered passé in 2012.
Today, we are to expect, you just need to make great content. Period.
So making great...
- April 10, 2012
5 Awesome Things About www.regent-college.edu
We are so pleased to launch a brand new, industry-defining site for Regent College. The site truly raises the bar for higher education on the web. The Regent team are fantastic clients—we can't say enough about how forward-thinking, open and collaborative they were through this process.
Nearly 15 months in the making, the site was touched by more than 20 of our team members in various stages of strategy, content, design and development. We're incredibly proud of it.
There are so many cool/smart/delightful elements of this site which will have to wait for future blog posts, but to celebrate the launch, here are five things we think are particularly awesome about it:
1. Client-centric
Often agencies are so concerned with bells, whistles and winning awards, that they put actual client needs second. We made Regent's goals our first concern. That meant building the brand, attracting new students, and communicating with students and alumni. The site is still gorgeous, but form followed function.
2. Mobile friendly
We built...
- April 9, 2012
Social Media Lessons from a 13-Year-Old
My 13-year-old niece is a social media guru, as are most of her friends. They excel on platforms where marketers and businesses struggle, flop, and fail (right #Rogers1Number?).
You've no doubt heard (or even said), “We need a blog,” “We should have a Facebook page,” “We have to be on Twitter,” or “Let's use social media to make it viral”?
It's exciting, but then it fizzles. No one blogs. Nothing happens on Facebook. No one knows what to tweet. And there's no return on investment. Or worse (right, #Rogers1Number?).
Social media channels are not strategic: they're tactical. Tweens understand social media strategy. Since they may not be able to verbalize it in a way that's coherent, I've done the translating for you.
Homework First
A 13-year-old girl has done her homework. She knows exactly which of her friends and acquaintances are online and on which platforms—and whether their parents are watching (demographics). She knows their personalities, interests, and attitudes (pyschographics). She knows when they post, and what they share (behavioural segments). The influencers are obvious to her...