Online Behavior of Digital Moms
Razorfish and CafeMom recently teamed up to publish a two-part article that explores the online behaviors of mothers. It’s appropriately titled Digital Mom 2009.This thorough, 30+ page article examines what women with children are up to when they log on. It avoids generalizations and is full of hearty statistics. For example, here is their finding about how mothers with older children are more likely to use Web 2.0 features:
Digital moms of children 12 and older, versus moms with children under 12, are more likely to watch online video (40% vs. 34%), game (57% vs. 51%), read online consumer reviews (38% vs. 30%), and watch or listen to podcasts (13% vs. 9%); while moms of children younger than 12 are more likely to use social networks (67% vs. 62%).
Part 1 focuses on the online behaviors of this growing group. The article’s table of contents summarizes the key findings:
- Digital moms are active users of Web 2.0 technologies.
- Age does matter, both the mom’s age and the child’s.
- Moms’ motivations for using emerging channels change as their children grow.
- “Whom moms communicate with” is changing.
- Moms may be moms, but they are also women with interests beyond parenting.
- Digital Moms first learn about products via many channels.
Part 2 looks at how mothers use social networks to connect, find information, and express themselves online.
Read the full article: Digital Mom 2009
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Inspiring Women of the Web & Technology
In light of March being women’s history month, I thought it was time for us to take a break from the recession and quickly reflect on great women who have made strides in the web industry. May these women motivate and inspire you to create cutting edge technology, leverage the web to create a new business, or continue to strive for excellence every day.
Naomi Simson - Founder and CEO, Red Balloon Days
From marketing to entrepreneurship, Naomi has taken her passion for pleasure seriously as a career option, creating the #1 Gift site in Australia and New Zealand four years running.
Marissa Mayer - VP Search Products and User Experience, Google
Ten years after becoming Google’s first female engineer on staff, Marissa now leads product management on all search related products - web, maps, desktop, earth and more. Marissa is an example on how sticking with a company willling to groom and train their employees can create shining stars.
Esther Dyson - Independent Investor and Entrepreneur
From writing for then flipping EDventures to CNET (thought reclaimed the name for personal business), becoming the founding chair of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to publishing a book on how the Internet affects individual lives, she has influenced a lot of people on the web. She now dabbles in many different companies, often becoming an early investor or board member of online startups, which have included Flickr and del.icio.us.
Alex Beauchamp - Independent Consultant, Girl at Play
Alex is noted to be one of the first females to create a personal web site back in 1995. She now owns a prosperous design company, having completed projects for many well known brands, including Disney, Washington Post and Anthropologie.
Lynne D Johnson - Director, Social Media, Fastcompany.com
Lynne is a professional journalist and blogger, having won numerous awards for her work, including the 2006 Black Blogger Achievement Award. Before Fastcompany she held the position of General Manager of new media for SPIN, VIBE and VIBE Vixen.
Who are other Women of the Web Leaders who, famous or not, creating the technology supporting it or leveraging the web in new ways, have inspired you?
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Can You Climb the Tech Ladder?
On the Systers blog hosted by the Anita Borg institute today I found an intriguing subject line - Savvy Geek Chix - promoting an event in SF on how to survive this economy. This is top of mind right now, especially since I just received word that the fiancee’s dad, after 30+ years with Sprint, is on the “take a year and look for a new job” list right now.
But then I stumbled upon something a bit more tangible for me in Dallas - a recent research publication on Climbing the Technical Ladder: Obstacles and Solutions for Mid-Level women in Technology. Here are four things the research points to as solutions that you should look for and consider doing if you are trying to foster growth and prosperity for the technical women within:
1. Professional Development
Leading or being part of a company that invests in each employee is critical to not just the growth of the employee, but of the competencies of the organization and the retention of employees. Being in technology means staying on top of the latest trends and technologies, not, using what you learned 15 years ago only. Find ways to learn, if not via internal training then by going to classes outside of the company.
2. Positive Culture
We need to be in an environment that has positive energy - not necessarily rewarding you for just getting out of bed and showing up for work but - one that can encourage you to deliver great results, foster team work and collaboration while meeting the company’s goals and objectives. We should be encouraged to take risks and try new things, not getting our hand slapped every time we try something different.
3. Managers Who “Get It”
Managers need to understand that there IS a difference in how women and men behave and communicate. They also have different support structures and needs due to their roles and responsibilities not just on the job, but back at home. More may need flex time. Or they need to be able to work from home. But this may relate to men as well, so it is important that managers today understand the world as we knew it - 1 stay at home person while the other works - is not the norm but the exception now a days.
4. Diversity At the Top
To encourage women to stay and see a longer term path for them, it is critical to show that there are female senior leaders in the ranks to show it is possible to get there. An all white male board says something completely different from a board of diverse professionals. Again, you don’t want to just reward a woman for showing up every day and are now a senior executive, but you need to find those with the skill, experience and aptitude to deliver what the company is looking to deliver.
Now if companies were doing this before the bubble burst…
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Four Tips to Keep Rolling In the Business
Be it landing the next great project to work on internally, promoting your work as an independent consultant, or selling your company wares, you need to find ways to continue to promote talent and cultivate relationships on a shoe string budget in 2009. But how? Here are some tips:
1. Thank Yous
It’s what mom taught us…thank yous….but not the verbal kind, SMS text, nor with an eGreeting. It’s the old fashioned, pull out a pen and note card, and write someone a thank you note. When was the last time you sent a personal thank you card to a client, co-worker or industry colleague? Here are some tips on how to save time writing personal thank you notes.
2. Pitch 3 Things
What three things make you stand out above the rest? Remind colleagues, your boss and prospects what 3 things you and/or your business are great at doing and why they need to keep you around.
3. Incorporate Asking for Referrals Into Different Processes
When someone registers for your website or newsletter, do you ask them to refer others? What about networking internally or within your industry networking group?
4. Reconnect with Someone Once a Week
Has it been a while since you chatted with a highly respected former boss? Senior executive you have a relationship with? Someone else you enjoy partnering with? Make it a habit to re-connect with someone once a week to continue fostering relationships within and outside of your business.
So who are you sending a thank you card to today?
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HTML Emails: A Primer
Every time you read your email, you are likely to open an HTML email, one which includes links and images and the omnipresent “If you wish to unsubscribe to this mailing…†directive at the bottom.
I occasionally delete these messages before my conscious brain even knows they’re there. But some HTML emails are stunning—succinct, content-driven messages wrapped in beautifully designed boxes. And I read them. Some are from Fortune 500 companies, some are from small business entrepreneurs. All are trying to stand out in a crowded ecosystem.
Many of us would profit by knowing how to create and send HTML emails. They keep ongoing clients in the loop, they attract new clients, they act as extensions of our websites and blogs, they help us, on a regular basis, to refine our message.
I recently attended an excellent—and free–seminar on HTML email at the Noble Desktop, a New York-based organization which specializes in teaching all aspects of Web Design and Desktop Publishing. I thought it important to share what I learned.
What do you need to send an HTML email?
Basically, any email application that supports POP, IMAP and SMTP will allow you to send HTML emails. In short, all of them. Clients such as Microsoft Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail and Hotmail all include tools to send HTML emails.
In the current version of Thunderbird, for example, you would:
- Create the HTML page you wish to send, either by hand coding or using an editor such as Dreamweaver.
- Select and copy the source code.
- Click on Message> New Message
- Click in the body of the message.
- Click on Insert >HTML
- Paste in the source code.
It is possible, with some applications, to code directly in the email window. However, coding your own email gives you greater control over the final product. So, code it, make sure that you have chosen the appropriate “Insert HTML†tool, and and paste it into the email window.
The nuts and bolts
When you design your HTML email, keep it simple.
In creating a normal web page, you are designing it to be part of a whole, a component that interacts with other components within your design universe. An HTML email is a self-contained entity at the mercy of a larger entity—the email application itself.
These applications—Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo—live in their own HTML and CSS universes and have their own coding rules to follow. Therefore, some basic rules to keep your code out of their way:
- No Flash, no Quicktime movies, no animated GIF’s. Current Email applications cannot handle them.
- You can use CSS to style, but again, keep it simple.
- Put your CSS style declarations in the body of the email, not in the <head> tag. Email applications—especially browser-based ones like Gmail– are very protective of that <head> space; they don’t want your code conflicting with theirs. If they see any weird code (translation: anything not theirs) in the <head>, they’ll strip it.
- Style using Class, not ID attributes.
- When you make a CSS style declaration, do not use any CSS shorthand. Use ‘font-family,’ font-size’ etc. Spell it out.
- Once you’ve made the declaration, repeat it inline.
For example, don’t just do this:<td colspan=â€2†valign=â€top†class=â€mydocâ€>Do this:<td colspan=â€2†valign=â€top†class=â€mydoc†style=â€font-size:13px; font-weight:bold; padding: 0px; font-family= Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; margin= 0px;â€Â face=†Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;†size=â€13pxâ€>The redundancy ensures consistency across platforms, as the inline style is permanently attached to the element it is styling. It will also protect you in case the declaration is overlooked or deleted. - Avoid using DIV’s and SPAN’s. SPAN’s might survive intact, as they are in fact inline elements. DIV’s will cause conflicts with your email application’s code. Which is why Tables are good. Yes, Tables. Yes, Nested Tables.It seems counter-intuitive to go back in time to Tables when you are designing something that may be read on a Blackberry or IPhone, but Tables are clean and simple and they read well across browsers. Tim Slavin of Sitepoint suggests nesting everything inside one big “Container Table,†as it acts as a sort of <BODY> tag, protecting everything inside it.Inside the large “Container Table†you might design a one-column or two-column layout with a header, main content, and footer. You might create a layout with more complexity, but nest no more than four levels of tables. Simplicity.
- If you are using absolute widths, make your “Container Table†600px. Most email windows are not nearly as wide as your screen, and many people make their windows even smaller, so 600px is a safe width. If you are using percentages, make your “Container Table†no greater than 98%. Some sources suggest 95% or even 90%, to make sure you are within Yahoo’s or Gmail’s or Hotmail’s structural parameters.
- Use absolute paths for image links. Remember that your HTML email is alone in a strange universe. Your images live on your website; make sure that the email can find its way to them.
- Include height and width attributes for all images; if your images fail to load, your layout will remain intact.
- Test Your HTML Code. Once you’re happy with the design of your HTML email, test it out on as many email applications as you can. Insert your HTML email into Thunderbird or Outlook and send it to yourself. Then send it again via Gmail or Apple Mail. And again via….you get the idea.
The proliferation of HTML email has spawned new companies that offer HTML email services such as customizable templates, email list management and mailing strategies, tracking and analytics. Among them: MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, MaxBulk Mailer and Constant Contact. Have a look at their offerings. They can do a lot of your heavy lifting.
HTML email is, sadly, likely to be pegged as spam, and filtered out before your target audience ever sees it. To separate themselves from Internet ruffians, legitimate senders are increasingly turning to companies like Return Path for certification, and it seems likely that certification will be mandatory in the very near future. And for tips on getting through spam filters, check out these great recommendations posted on the Webgrrls blog.
HTML email is clearly not the only way to communicate with clients, customers, friends, and colleagues. But it is a great arrow in your quiver and a good way to send up a flare.
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