Cost-Effective Content Management System Case Study - Public Diplomacy Magazine

University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication turns to ImageBeam for re-branding and new online publication website.

ImageBeam designed and built a Wordpress powered Content Management System (CMS) website for USC Annenberg School for Communication Public Diplomacy Magazine. This new website allows a student-run editorial magazine to share their mission, publish new issues of their magazine and interact with readers in new ways.

When We Started

Public Diplomacy Magazine was delivering an amazing printed version of their publication. Yet when we met them, the quality of the publication did not translate onto their site, which felt dated and clunky to navigate. It didn't give the user the experience the staff wanted - that of an international publication which readers are immersed in the content. It was also impossible for the publication staff to update the website.

"We needed ImageBeam to help turn the site into something we felt spoke to our mission and something we could work with ourselves in the future." -Katherine Keith, Senior Editor.

Public Diplomacy Magazine former website (above)

"We were concerned with delivering a professional product on a limited budget, but ImageBeam was understanding and cooperative, devising a plan that exceeded our expectations." -Tala Mohebi, Editor-in-Chief

When We Were Finished

ImageBeam delivered a newly furnished WordPress powered website which will allow future Public Diplomacy Staff writers to upload new editions and articles without the need to hire a web development firm. The site also helped the staff clarify their mission and generate excitement about their mission. We are proud of what we accomplished with this project and are pleased to have contributed to an organization committed to this important discipline.

Public Diplomacy Magazine's new website (above)

"While a beautiful website can draw in the reader initially, what keeps them there is the expertise in creating an easily navigated site and that's where ImageBeam designers shined, putting not only a polished look on the website but also making it user friendly." -Tala Mohebi

To see the website in action visit www.publicdiplomacymagzine.com

BNI: Not for everyone, Critical for some

For those of you that do not know, BNI stands for Business Networkers International. BNI is an annually paid networking group that meets weekly and is designed to create an enviroment of local business activity by excluding competition & incentivizing referrals.

I am reccomending that if you are an independent graphic/web designer who wants to work with many local clients on one month projects, you should seriously consider joining and being a leader at a BNI chapter.

This week, my friend Jon invited me to visit his BNI Chapter breakfast. This was not the first time someone had invited me to a BNI breakfast. What made the difference in my attending this time is who Jon is, a close friend, advisor and male role model. We've gotten to know each other so when he asked me to be his guest I paused to investigate why I was resisting his invitation.

I can remember like it was yesterday.... A three month old business development professional selling websites and video production services. Baptized by fire to learn the craft of selling technology solutions to business in Orange County. I don't even remember who invited me to the local BNI Chapter but all I know is that it was like wakling into a dark, stone cave of a native tribe. I was viewed as the outsider, the roaming networker. Like a bewildered traveler I shook hands with the natives and particpiated in their local customs; I traded business cards with the local membership cheif, sampled the local scrambled egg faire. Once they heard my stories and my offerings they took me into a small room and invited me to run the gauntlet to be in their tribe!

I left that first interaction with a bad taste in my mouth about these referral netowrking groups. So you can imagine my hesitation when my friend Jon invites me to join him on Tuesday morning at 7:30 am in Long Beach. Yet I wasn't going to let knowing that BNI isn't a match for ImageBeam stop me from meeting some eager, dedicated networking professionals.

To summarize my second experience, it was wonderful. To meet business owners, supporting their families, from all walks of life that meet so reguarly and commit to actively create business for one another is remarkable. It's inspiring to see people who all own their own business and pour their hearts and talents into their dreams. For the small business owner or proefssionals who serves small to medium sized businesses, BNI truly is a unique and potent system.

My recommendation: If you are a young graphic and web designer wanting to start your own business, BNI and organizations like it are a potent pool of businesses owners that will lead you to supplemental graphic and web design services through nurtured relationships. While websites, brochures and logo design may not be business critical to these clients, if you're costs & terms are flexible, you could create a healthy stream of business from these groups.

Here are 3 ways you can hit it big with a strong BNI chapter.

1. Offer month to month payment terms. Smaller businesses think of their operating costs in a month to month term versus quarter to quarter. A sample project would be a wordpress customized website, high value for local businesses. $3000 total project, $750 on start up, $750 on completion and the final $1500 paid over 9 - 18 months.

2. Raffle probono logo redesign for members of your BNI chapter.

3. Design a logo or build a website for your BNI chapter

-Edward Kennedy

Business Development Executive

A look at how Facebook Fan Pages impact your online presence;

ImageBeam's Facebook Page showcases client work, reaches a unique audience and drives brand awareness by giving users what they expect on Facebook.

The Facts
Since September 21st 2009 ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page has grown from 14 fans to 94 fans, a 671% jump in just 11 weeks. That's over seven new fans per week.

How did we grow and what has been the impact?

What we've done:

1. Publishing work we have completed with clients. This includes newly launched websites and videos that have been produced.

2. ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page is a distribution point for our Press Releases, particularly events and announcement that include rich media photos or video.

Things to consider in 2010:

1. Contest give-aways directly from the Facebook Fan Page

2. Advertising on Facebook

3. Use of Discussion forums on Fan Page. "Worst Website Award" contest is an example of a user generated campaign.

Tools and Techniques

Tool 1: ImageBeam Facebook Fan Page Admins.

ImageBeam employees are allowed to be Facebook Fan Page Admins, which allows more control to share and post content. Spikes on Sept. 23rd, Oct. 8th, and November 20th are from direct invites from ImageBeam employees to their personal Facebook profile friend's list. A successful business Facebook Fan page is powered through it's Admins, active admins create new fans and engaging content.

Tool 2: Rich Media (Photos & Video).

On November 8th, 2009 ImageBeam posted a video on its fan page. It got 46 views and added 6 new fans without direct invites. In addition, the video was viewed 51 times on YouTube. Rich media has played a huge role in our exposure on Facebook because it is the preferred medium to interact with on Facebook. Users love photos and videos over plain text and links

The Results

New Clients! - from non-traditional relationships.

One of our newest clients, indicated interest in our services by reading posts from a personal relationship with one of ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page Admins and the ImageBeam Fan Page itself. It was unlikely that this client would asked us about our web development capabilities through traditional channels nor would ImageBeam's business development team recognize them as a prospect, yet here we a...doing business with personal contact with a sale rooted in social media.

Should your company launch and manage a Facebook Fan Page? Things to consider

Return on Investment (ROI) of Facebook Fan Pages - Effective and Measurable.

The "I" in ROI. Investment of time and resources from ImageBeam has been minimal. ImageBeam uses existing content that is distributed through other channels. Press Releases, Client Work, Event Photos and Videos are all popular posts and is was natural fit for ImageBeam’s Facebook fan page as the content was a part of our existing Marketing and PR efforts.

The "R" in ROI. Return on Investment has been high for ImageBeam's Facebook Fan Page and most importantly, it's measurable. Facebook Fan Pages provides a comprehensive analytic tool which generates detailed reports about fan demographics, interactions and even rates your post quality for the day. Also, ImageBeam's Facebook Page Admin's existing use and comfort with Facebook and willingness to publish new content while working.

Be our fan to see our client work and win prizes!

Companies use Sharepoint to collaborate and get work done

Making Business Sense of the Power of Sharepoint(MOSS)

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) helped drive successful enterprises to where they are now, today, it's your turn.

The word may have been thrown around your office - intranet. For many, it is a mystery as to what a company intranet can do or how it can make a difference. For others, intranets are an essential business tool, a collaboration point and resource to get the job done!

WHAT IS MOSS?

"[Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, otherwise known as 'MOSS'], is an integrated suite of server capabilities that can help improve organizational effectiveness by providing comprehensive content management and enterprise search, accelerating shared business processes, and facilitating information-sharing across boundaries for better business insight"

-www.sharepoint.microsoft.com

Unlock the P.O.W.E.R. of the INTRAnet

P. is for Productivity Until your Company utilizes a comprehensive Enterprise Search Tool, employee productivity will suffer

MOSS allows you to create highly specific, relevant Enterprise Search Tools with features like Tagging, Bookmarking, Scope and Query.

IN ACTION - Cushman & Wakefield^{^}

The marketing team at Cushman & Wakefield, the world's largest privately held commercial real-estate services firm, uses a fully functional Sharepoint powered Enterprise Search Tool.^{^ Previously, the team sent out mass emails to its staff often returning, useless and outdated information. Since its implementation, the marketing team has had the power of business critical information at their fingertips. Now, search times are down dramatically and the Marketing team responds on time and above expectations.}

O. is for Organization An Intranet brings your business intelligence into one, manageable system

Sharepoint allows companies to collect, collate and distribute information to varying teams across multiple offices and roles.

IN ACTION - Cisco^t

At Cisco Systems, all employees submit their personal business expenses via the intranet - which has not only saved the company millions, but also reduced the waiting time for reimbursement. Cisco's METRO expense reporting application has reduced the cost of processing expense reports (compared to the traditional paper system) from US$50.69 in 1996 to $1.90 in 1999 - a whopping 96% reduction. Total METRO savings in 1999 totaled US$77 million. At the same time, the time required for processing each expense report dropped from an average of 21 days to only 4 days.^t

W. is for Workflow Getting from Point A to Point B is faster and easier with Workflow.

Workflow is a tool within Sharepoint that allows users, with differing roles and responsibilities, to collaborate around content and tasks. Workflow streamlines project completion through auto-email notifications, team performance reports and approval/denial actions. Content can also be managed with comments after changes are made with versioning tools as well.

E. is for Everyone Your Sharepoint Employee Portal brings everyone together under one system. Diverse teams working cohesively, all roles and responsibilities can share information and collaborate easily. Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server is a tool; A tool which allows your company the freedom to do its best work. Without these systems, the speed and responsiveness of companies suffer.

R. is for Return on Investment

Finally, the Return on Investment that companies see from well developed and implemented Sharepoint Intranets is staggering. Here are some Benefits of Intranets that can be measured with Return on Investment.

Hard Costs - Reduction in staff
needed and printing costs are two big areas.

Productivity - increases as Workflow process are implemented and executed.

Collaboration - File versioning, check-in/check-out functions
allow for real time collaboration on projects, tasks and documents.

Time To Market - Again, with Workflow and Collaboration, teams
see a major increase in Time to Market of products and services.

Customer Service - Intranets cut operation costs of Customer Service
departments for reduction in personnel and call times.

Human Resources - Enterprise Search and other tools allow employees to access HR materials without the involvement of HR team or management.

Technology stalwarts Oracle, Cisco and GE have all made headlines touting impressive intranet ROI of US$1 to $10 million^t

How Departments Utilize Sharepoint....

Marketing:

WEB CONTENT MANAGEMENT allows marketing teams to make changes to public and inward facing websites directly from Sharepoint

CLIENT PORTALS engage your customers, partners and vendors through your MOSS portal and allow your customers to interact with your high value resources. Other features include client-specific data access and project status
updates.

Operations:

WORKFLOW COLLABORATION allows your management teams to follow and interact with multiple delivery teams covering a range of concerns from Legal to Marketing, from Sales to HR. Your team can streamline order fulfillment or product development with this high value tool.

ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT allows your employees to check-out documents, make changes and check-in with comments for ongoing document continuity. Other features include document locking, minor/major versioning, and role based permission.

HR:

ENTERPRISE SEARCH Whether it's a change of status on a W2 form or a printable .pdf of their benefits, ENTERPRISE SEARCH will put answers at the finger tips of your employees -saving your HR team time.

Customer Service:

CLIENT PORTALS will allow your clients and customers to access relevant project information at any time. Call centers see a major impact on performance when providing information to their customers through a Client Portal. Customer Service Teams can also access client specific data in seconds.

I.T.

FULLY INTEGRATE your enterprise ERP, CRM, Email Client, and Office Suite software with MOSS for streamlined collaboration, document continuity and integrity.

Bottom Line It:

WHO USES MOSS?

Companies include;
Jamba Juice, Starbucks Corporation, Culver Franchising Systems, MTV
Networks, Coca-Cola Corporation, Ferrari S.p.A, Kraft Foods, Cushman
& Wakefield Real Estate, Tyson Foods, Citroën, CDW, Gallup, General
Mills, Remax, Continental Airlines, Energizer, Hawaiian Airlines, Lloyds
TSB*source:sharepoint.microsoft.com

"More than 85% of Global 2000 companies have implemented or are developing intranets"

-META Group Study

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?

• Collaboration

• Client Portal

• Enterprise Search

• Enterprise Content Management
  (ECM)

• Web Content Management

• Business Process

• Business Intelligence

• Social Computing

SOURCES: Microsoft Case Study - Cushman & Wakefield^, Accenture Article* ,Measured Intranet ROI Benefits Part II^t Web Content Manager with Sharepoint MOSS 2007 Part 2 - Workflow∞ Sharepoint - Microsoft

ImageBeam September Blog: Top 5 Reasons to use Video on your website

Top 5 Reasons to use Video on your website

Making the case for B2B and B2C companies to use Video on your home page.

1. Your Customer Expects It

Just like with other sales and marketing channels, your website visitor is savvy and has high expectations for what they will find on your website. eMarketer shows that Online Users continue to watch more videos and spend over 42% more time watching videos online.

Today's internet user is trained to expect impeccable layout and design for your website and expects to engage in content that is the focal point of your home page. A compelling testimonial or marketing video is a match for what your customers expect.

eMarketer July 2009*

2. Rich Video Communicates effectively in complicated, high trust sales

Whether you're a B2B or B2C company, your customer has a lot of hurdles to overcome in doing business with you. And that's the way it should be. Many of us sell and market complex products or services and our customer is making both a financial and emotional investment when they are considering doing business with you. A rich video is the bridge to your customer's emotional connection to your product or service. The bottom line is that you can communicate the impact that your product or service can have on your customer's success and satisfaction through high quality videos.

3. Your Customer see's you as the Expert and their Resource

Spend enough time in any Industry and what seems like "thebasics" to you makes all the difference in someone's perception of your product or service. Your customers or clients have questions running through their head, not just about your services but about your industry. While they may have some sense of your offerings and the expected benefits to them, you have the opportunity to act as the liaison between them and your entire industry, a powerful position to be in. How? Create a compelling video that engages with those "running questions". Watch your potential customers flock to your video and, moreover, start to take the next step in doing business with you.

4. Users spend more time on your Home Page, resulting in Higher Penetration Rate

What is the point of laying out all of your service offerings, testimonials, resources, and contact information on your website if your users don't go beyond the home page? Web designers are constantly working on making their clients' home page (or entry page) more engaging so that users 'penetrate' to interior pages. An effective way of achieving a high penetration rate is to embed a video into your home page and have it grab the attention of your user.

In 2007 ImageBeam completed and launched Stemedica.com, a San Diego based Stem Cell Research company, website. ImageBeam produced four 'client impact' video's that were embedded into the home page navigation. These videos were designed to capture the attention and emotion of the visitors to the site.

ImageBeam also designed and launched the current Stemedica family of websites www.stemedica.com

5. Higher Conversion with Calls to Action

During and after the video is complete, you can layout calls to action (links to interior pages) that will allow you to convert visitors in to customers. Once you have wowed them with your video you can invite them to take the next step. For Example...

• Contact Us
• Schedule an Appointment
• Request a Quote
• Shop Online
• Watch another Video
• Read our Case Study
• Follow our Blog
• Meet the Owner

These are all relevant "calls to action" for your business that could be presented around and embedded into your video. There are many more that fit for your specific industry, business and way of communicating with your customer.

We hope these reason's give you an insight into why video is becoming a standard practice in Web Presence of any company.

For questions on how video can impact your company's web presence, sales or marketing efforts, Contact ImageBeam for a free consultation & strategy session.(see contact information below)

For samples of ImageBeam's past video projects, visit our Video Sample Page

Downloadable .PDF

ed.kennedy@imagebeam.com | 949.228.8657

www.imagebeam.com | 17961 Cowan Street | Irvine, CA 92613

ImageBeam August Blog: Corporations Could Learn a Thing or Two from Non-Profits with Respect to Video Production

If you've been thinking about how to use video in your company, take a look at how non-profits approach using video. Since 2003 ImageBeam has produced over a dozen event based or fundraising videos for Non-Profit Organizations. In this time we've come across many inspiring organizations and projects. Non-Profits leverage video (Rich Media) to get their message out about their organization to their potential donors, sponsors and volunteers.

In spending time in this industry, we have noticed that there are key elements of Non-Profit videos that apply to the use of Video for Marketing and Visibility purposes for Companies and Corporations. Here are some best practices for producing an effective Corporate Video through the eyes of a Non-Profit.

Introduce the impact of the program, and then introduce the organization.

Too many times have I seen companies create videos that tell the audience all about the company and how great their services are and how wonderful it is to work with them, however, those videos don't show the audience these things, in action.

Before you toot your company's horn on your corporate video, introduce individuals your audience relates to. Your audience wants to see themselves in your video, through somebody else's testimonial or interview. For example, if your company is in the professional services industry, interview one of your best clients and have that be one of the FIRST things your audience is introduced to.

Then, once you've established the impact of your service or product, then introduce your company through an interview or voice over from one of the leaders in your company or department.

Highlight all the Players in the Game

One of the most effective practices that Non Profits take on in producing a fundraising or "Mission Statement" video is to interview and hear from each category of people involved with the organization. For example, a Non Profit that serves young children would interview and show footage of the young children at the organization's events or programs. In addition, they would interview staff and program coordinators of the Organization; finally, rounding those interviews out with recipients of any awards or the community "power partners" they work closely with. All of this would be tied together with a powerful voice over script that leaves the audience with the Organization's message.

Don't leave out key people that would round out your video. If you are using voice over, use footage of each type of person involved in your project, company or service. In addition to video of your best clients and the leader of your company, interview some of your employees, or a local business leader in the community that is affiliated with your organization.

When producing your next Corporate Video think of how a Non-Profit would communicate with their Donors or Volunteers. Here is a link to an sample Nonprofit video project ImageBeam completed using the best practices mentioned above, Project Tomorrow.

Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server; Leading the Information Transformation

MOSS gather's those rolling stones of information.

Accenture conducted a business survey in 2007 which uncovered that managers and employees spend at least two hours a day searching for internal information, and 50% of the information they find isn't of any value to them*. In addition, 3 out of 5 respondents said, as a consequence of poor information distribution, they miss information that might be valuable to their jobs almost every day because it exists somewhere else in the company and they just cannot find it.

Why is this relevant to you? It points out the massive amount of information available to businesses. Your company assets (documents, presentations, forms, videos, graphics, and contact files) are stored throughout your company's network folders and without a fluid system these assets become obsolete.

Stop!

and think....

1. How many hours have you spent trying to locate the right version of a document?
2. How much time do you spend looking for information rather than using it?
3. How valuable is your time and the time of your employees?

The longer you go without a workable document management and work flow system, your company losses profitability.

ImageBeam's Company Wide Solution

In partnership with Microsoft, ImageBeam builds custom company wide information infrastructures that allow employees to access valuable company assets and manage them in a way that maintains their relevance, integrity and accessibility. ImageBeam uses Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) software to build custom document management and work flow systems that puts the information you need at your fingertips in an environment that allows for collaboration and communication.

To find out more;
1. Download our.pdf fact sheet about Intranets
2. Contact ImageBeam for a free consultation and demonstration of our MOSS System
info@imagebeam.com, 949.228.8657

*Accenture Article