A few weeks after HealthCamp Philadelphia, I attended another one-day workshop – Web Tools & Rules (WT&R) It was a very different event, but equally valuable. In dining terms, HealthCamps are food parties with dishes from talented friends, while WT&R was a formal dinner at a 5-star restaurant.
The master chefs for this event were Lisa Welchman and Tony Byrne. Lisa is the founding partner of WelchmanPierpoint, and Tony is the founder of CMS Watch. It was held on April 6, 2009 at the D.C. headquarters of the American Institute of Architects.
(Full disclosure – Over the past 5 years I have engaged both Lisa and Tony for Web projects at my hospital. Once to manage a CMS selection process, and more recently on a new Intranet site.)
This was a seminar for experienced web managers, who are responsible for large, complex web operations at equally complex organizations. The major themes were:
Web Governace (Rules):
Why the web function needs to be run as a separate department, with structure and accountabilty in the larger organization.
How to position web operations during a recession
How to settle ownership conflicts
Educating the C-suite
Tools:
Advanced tools for managing complex sites
Integration of social media tools into your current site
Managing audio & video content
Measurement challenges of socail media
Advanced analytics tools – going way beyond Webtrends
Here’s some of my notes tweeted during the sessions:
Strategy and Governance
Web Strategy = mapping the mission of the organization to the mission of the web program, then formalizing the authority of the web operations function – who’s in charge, who makes the decisions. Too often this has grown organically in most places.
Web governance = the administrative and authority structures that policies and standards for web operations. It’s a framework that determines how we operate, a formalization of process.
Most web programs don’t have an official administrative manager – someone who can bridge between the web team and the org
The Web Infrastructure Management family:
1. Design & Editorial
2. Information Organization and Access
3 Web Tools and Applications
4. Network and Servers Infrastructure
The above should be one team . If you can’t have all four, then at least get 2 and 3 together - Information Organization / Access, and Web Tools / Applications. Most web shops need more management and accountability – if they want to be taken seriously in the organization.
Web Measurement and Social Tools
The risk of no analytics = inability to react, because you are in ignorance about the user experience.
Not measuring, analyzing and reporting properly is the main failure of most web programs.
Web analytics is better at trends, not exact numbers
Google Analytics never saves your raw data, it’s requires trust that the reports are correct. The true cost of free analytics – you don’t own your data, no verification, no SLA, no multi-site roll-up, little data mining.
Social Software
Social Media = “Collaboration and networking within and beyond the enterprise”
Challenge – How do you integrate your official content library with User Generated content? New trend is to import this data into your repository. And the reverse is also starting – publishing from your repository into SM sites (Facebook, Linkedin, etc)
Most Social Media software has little sense of “Roles” Choice is binary – public or private. This is hinders integration in large organizations
Managing the Web in a Recession
1. Sell the Web as a way to reduce operational expenses
2. Find and use key success indicators to prove web value
3. Cut web waste – ROT – redundant, out-of-date, trivial, content and tools
4. Leverage quick, cheap and deep web platforms
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Conclusion - This was a thought provoking workshop. It challanged many of the approaches I use, and has made me consider doing things differently. If you get the oppertunity to hear Lisa or Tony present, I think you will find it worth your time.
