Andy is Chief Web Guru at 48Web - a small web startup in Des Moines, IA. They specialize in web strategy, development, and consulting. He also writes a couple of blogs as well and co-hosts a podcast. One is a technology blog called Get A New Browser where he discusses the business and technology behind the web. The other is Web Strategy Workshop where he writes about web strategies and internet marketing techniques for small businesses and agencies. And he, co-hosts a podcast with Doug Mitchell called Managing The Edge - helping businesses become more findable and engaging online.
Andy also founded and designed the IowaFlood website which became the defacto clearinghouse for real-time information on the impact of the 2008 floods in Iowa. Much of that information came from citizen journalists' efforts.
Let’s talk about the Iowa floods, the event, your site and what’s changed since last year. Bring us current with the site. What’s happening there?
Even today the site still pulls in news from many news sources and has gone through a maintenance mode to scale the large amounts of visits, and is still growing. The bounce rates are very low. I've noticed that visitors spend more time on the site. This shows that the content is compelling and of interest to the audience. There is code on the back end of the website crawl the social networking sites to extract the most specific news worthy content for the site.
Tell us about the resources you used to build the site then. Which ones worked the best? Why?
Once the floods started, it only took about a day or two to create the website. I had noticed all of the tweets and posts regarding the floods and no one was trying to promote the content or act as a resource or point of contact for what was happening.
Resources to build the site? I use RSS feeds to consume the information then ran the information through YAHOO Pipes to “clean” it up and then send directly to the blog. I built it with WordPress.YAHOO Pipes is a great tool for gathering data and clearing up noise/duplicates from aggregate sites. Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web.
Like Unix pipes, simple commands can be combined together to create output that meets your needs:
* combine many feeds into one, then sort, filter and translate it.
* geocode your favorite feeds and browse the items on an interactive map.
* power widgets/badges on your web site.
* grab the output of any Pipes as RSS, JSON, KML, and other formats.
Tell us about the site’s users. Who used it? Why? How did they use it?
People wanted to see the raw content, the reality of life during the flood, depicting the real human experience.
What was your reasonable aspiration or hoped-for goal when you created it? For our listeners that phrase and its definition comes from Erika Andersen’s book: Being Strategic.
Many major media outlets contacted me: WNYC, Iowa Public Radio were interested in the floods as well as the technology that was used to create such a dynamic powerful site. Traditional media does not have the same power as iowaflood.com for the fact that they use their own images, more editorial in nature, vs the realism of the devastation portrayed by the community-driven content. My site reached out and linked out to people and it became more viral.
Let’s say the next once-in-500 year flood hits Iowa in August. What would you do differently? What other resources would you use? How would you promote it?1. Use Twitter more.
2. Create a dedicated Twitter account to send out up to date information.
3. Remove himself as an editor so information can get to the site faster.
4. Create an email list of the website visitors to engage and distribute emergency information and content.
5. Use friendfeed and their embeddable widgets.
Why Friendfeed? You're a big fan of it. Why?
I create groups and lists of people that are publishing and sharing content that is live and up-to-date. You can segregate your content feeds. Once content is shared, it is threaded like a discussion board and takes the content to the next level. You can create rooms and add RSS feeds from various sites to populate the friendfeed room and then easily upload it to WordPress.
What changes in social media are reflected in IowaFlood.com?
The next version of Iowa Flood will reflect more of the changes in terms of disseminating news and content especially because of Twitter.
Since your experience in building Iowa Floods, what changes have you seen with Social Media and social needs?
Social media brings a lot to the forefront that may not have necessarily been covered by mainstream media. News organizations are now using social media on their sites to stay informed, learn about more trends, and deliver the news to the public. It is instant, real time news.
What, if anything, changed this year with social media and its uses for social needs?
WordPress is the biggest change. It has changed the web environment and eliminated the standard web development time-frames and problems. As the web needs progressed and shifted, my firm has grown into a strategy company versus web development.
Which new social media resources have failed to live up to their hype?
- Web video: It is not escalating as fast as it was first expected.
- Facebook: Not as much value as a friendfeed or Twitter.
The edge is where technology meets the customer and how we can use these available tools to make the customer experience more valuable. We talk about inbound marketing à bringing people to your website with great content, and then converting them into leads or sales. It is the principle of reciprocity: if you provide this content, they are more apt to come to you when they need something. The content must be findable, engaging and extends value.
You have an episode there titled 10 Things from Our Last 10 Episodes. What are those 10 things?
1. Building a technology platform that won’t inhibit you, but will allow you to be more agile and produce content more quickly.
2. Content and the long sale of content. Provide valuable information
3. Put the content where the people are
4. Listening strategies
5. Local search optimization
6. Blogging is essential in business
7. Measuring social media based upon established goals
What are your biggest challenges as a small-business owner?
Taxes and healthcare
What three tips or tools would you offer our listeners to enter the social media arena?
1. Create goals for using SM as a business. They need to be defined enabling the opportunity to measure your efforts against your goals.
2. Develop content and make it available in many channels: blogging, podcasts and video.
3. Build a following on Twitter to help build a community and be THE resource for your expertise.
You can follow Andy Brudtkuhl on Twitter at abrudtkuhl.
Thanks, Andy.
Comments