Sunday 19 July 2009

Caveat Lector closes down

I was saddened to hear, a while ago now, that Dorothea Salo, writer of the library blog Caveat Lector, has decided that Cav Lec is no longer the way for her to go.

I came to Cav Lec not so long ago; it got onto my radar when one of the library blogs I follow - possibly librarian.net - congratulated Dorothea on her Library Movers and Shakers award earlier this year. So I'm not a die-hard, I-was-there-when-the-first-post-came-out sort of reader; that blog and I were only really getting acquainted when it closed down. Nor is the topic of Cav Lec - open repositories - one that I have any particular thoughts about, professionally speaking.

Sometimes you meet someone who is a passionate, articulate expert about something you know nothing about. Someone you'd listen to all day, if you could; someone who brings their topic to life for you. That's what Cav Lec was for me. An unexpected tour of the engine room from the guy who's worked there man and boy; or, perhaps better, from the guy who pours his life into the machines knowing full well that the corporate suits who run the place don't get why the engine room's important.

Which was another thing I liked about Cav Lec - the current of anger running through it. In a world where half of us are too polite or careful to truly say what we think and the other half scream out their opinions with no real attempt to engage or persuade others, Dorothea was the rare exception. Points thought out, beautifully articulate, but no punches pulled: if something was wrong, it was, in so many words, just plain wrong.

Dorothea knows repositories; speaks out for them; draws you into them. From what she says, that's part of the problem with Cav Lec - she's ended up as sole figurehead for an area of the profession that desperately needs a community of advocates. I guess you get tired of shouting when yours is the only voice you can hear; and you begin to wonder if no one else is pitching in because you're shouting too loud.

Whatever her reasons, and for what it's worth, I'm gonna miss Caveat Lector. I'm still reading her stuff - she's got a new blog on e-research over at ScienceBlogs (The Book of Troogol). I'm sure it will be wonderful - but it won't be the same.

Sunday 12 July 2009

Marketing: not always the answer (or, don't put lipstick on a pig)

I recently did some usability testing on the websites that I manage, and in each case asked someone from the website's department to come along, observe and take notes. If they observed any difficulties, they were to note them down, as well as any ideas they had for making improvements.

On one of the sites, users were having problems downloading the Access to Learning Fund (ALF) form. This form is not available through a text link like other forms on the same page. Instead, you click on an image of the form in the right-hand column of the page, and the form opens. My solution to the problem? Add in a text link to the form. The department staff member's solution? "Ensure that the profile of the ALF form is raised across the University, so that the form is immediately recognisable".

I see this a lot. Whenever I tell a department that some of their pages are not being used, or that only three links out of the fifty they have on their "useful websites" list have been clicked more than once, the answer is always "we'll do more marketing". Or "those pages should link from the main page"; or "we'll put different links at the top every week". If something is not working on a site, marketing is the answer.

As far as I can tell, there are two factors at play here. One is that people simply do not want to take down content that they have put up. If you suggest that underperforming pages ought to be deleted, people are going to look for ways in which the page can be given a new lease of life. The other is that focusing on making the website better and easier to use throughout - which, in general, does encourage traffic - is a hard slog, and not a particularly sexy hard slog at that. Much more fun to throw a load of money at a new, exciting marketing initiative than go through each and every page review it to make sure it's written to a clear purpose.

I use the following lines of reasoning a lot, to try and change minds:
  1. You can't market everything
    It is logically impossible to give every page in your site a prime position on your main page (unless you have a bare handful of pages, that is). So you will still need to decide what to highlight. And some pages will still be left behind. What can you do with those, except choose to improve them or to get rid of them?
  2. Marketing is one-off and time-limited
    Most marketing initiatives for web pages are one-off projects - a banner, a leaflet, posters, or a "feature" in a high-traffic part of the university website. These generate a burst of excitement, and can work really well for pages that are particularly relevant at a certain time of year: exam stress pages are a great example. But for most pages, you still need to find a way to transform the burst of excitement into long-term use.
  3. Marketing can only lead the horse to water
    Marketing can lead people to a particular page. But if that page is low-quality, difficult to get through, uninformative and untidy, you've wasted their time and your money.
In other words, whether or not you market your pages, it still pays to put in the effort to keep everything relevant, tidy, clear and purposeful, so that when your users find your pages - with the help of a marketing initiative or otherwise - they are able to use and appreciate them. Marketing is a valuable tool; but it is not the answer to your web use problems. If what you're marketing is not up to scratch, then even the best of marketing campaigns is just putting lipstick on a pig.

Wednesday 1 July 2009

Four marketing blogs for information people

Meredith Farkas wrote a post last April on marketing, and why library schools should teach it. It really struck a chord with me. I don't think I fully realised, until I started working in information, how little of my day I would spend on the work of managing information, and how much, instead, on selling my skills, marketing my service, and advocating on behalf of my users. Seriously, I think my time is split 80/20 between persuading people that something needs doing or that they should be paying attention to something that has been done, and actually doing stuff. On a good day.
I wasn't taught marketing at all in library school (unless perhaps there was a nod to it in our Management module); what little I know, I've picked up from my own reading.
Blogs in particular have been an amazingly valuable source of inspiration. The great thing about a blog is, it's not a humongous block of text you have to take in all at once. Posts are usually bite-size (or at least article-size) and, if you don't have time to read one, no worries, a new post will be along in a couple of days. That means I can tailor my professional development to suit my free and busy times. And on top of that, reading a number of blogs means I get a range of ideas and viewpoints; one marketing text is unlikely to deliver the same variety.
But enough about why I read blogs - if you need any more persuading read @ekcragg's excellent post on the topic. Without further ado, the marketing blogs that I have found useful (some are more web-related than others):

Seth Godin
I love this blog because the posts are daily, short, and almost unfailingly give me something to think about. Seth advocates the type of marketing where you develop relationships with your users, actually care about what they want, and generally try to be a good sort. He also attacks what to me are some of the failings of educational settings: the need to be everything to everyone, and the fear of doing something that no one else is doing.

Josh Klein web strategy
This one I read because the posts are more substantial, and tend to give solutions (or at least, methods) rather than just interesting thoughts. Josh's take on web content management is that the key ingredient is your passion about what you are writing; he is currently posting a series on writing a great blog.

Online marketing expert
In real life, James is the person who set me on the path to being a web content person; I've had many a latte with him while we discussed the ins and outs of good web practice. He is passionate about his job, and this comes across in his posts, which provide a good basic introduction to web/online marketing as well as the odd amusing rant :-).

Tom Fishburne
I like this one - which is a management blog, but has a lot to say about marketing - because as well as the (knowledgeable, insightful) post you get a funny little cartoon at the top for light relief.