The Metadata Lifecycle for Digital Content

Classifying metadata values along a “content lifecycle” timeline is an interesting exercise that can make your DAM easier to use and maintain. Applying the categories Historical, Current and Future, you’ll find that each metadata value describes something related to the content’s origin or history, its current state or its future use.

The most immediate benefits that come from this metadata categorization are:

• It’s easier to ensure all required metadata (and nothing more) have been considered
• It’s easier to wrap a meaningful per-field rights model around your metadata fields, which enables you to better govern who can edit and see each value.

Applying the Metadata Timeline

Think of your metadata values as each falling somewhere on a timeline, with Historical values on the left, Current values in the middle and Future values on the right. This visual exercise enables you to spot any holes in your metadata schema, and it also illustrates where your timeline might be overstuffed with values that are redundant or beyond your needs. (Rule of thumb: If you can’t imagine ever searching for or reporting on a given metadata value, chances are you don’t need it.)

Below are examples of some common metadata values and where they fit along the metadata timeline.

Historical Metadata

Digital cameras can capture a suite of metadata that are part of the EXIF metadata standard. Among these values are date and time, camera model, shutter speed and other values that describe the state of the camera in use at the moment the photo was taken. Other content types come with their own set of Historical metadata values, such the date of an audio recording, the frame rate of a video capture or the author of a document.

Values like these mark the beginning of the content’s Historical metadata timeline and they must be protected to ensure their validity. In fact, it’s good policy to configure your DAM so that Historical metadata values cannot be casually (or erroneously) edited by users. This is an important distinction between Historical and Current metadata values.

In addition to the “carved in digital stone” metadata that should remain unchanged throughout the lifecycle of your content, you’ll periodically add values to Historical metadata to reflect the content’s lifecycle journey. Examples include:

• Licenses — To whom was the content licensed, and when
• Modifications — When were updates performed, and where are those older versions
• Approvals — Who granted approvals and when were they granted
• Distributions — Where was the content shared or sent, and when

As with the content’s original Historical values, these values should be changed only in the case of error. And those changes should always be in accordance with official DAM policy, which might include reviews, audits and journal entries outside the DAM itself.

Current metadata

Current metadata values describe the state of the content right now. Here you find your descriptive tags, production statuses, ownership, etc.

We think of Current metadata values as being subject to change as the content evolves, but it’s not uncommon for some Current metadata, such as the subject of a photo, to remain unchanged throughout the content’s lifecycle. Though it’s tempting to think of these static Current values as being Historical, it’s a good idea to keep them in your Current classification for one reason: they sometimes do change.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com

The Social Science of Your Social Business #socialintel2012

The science of digital media proposes to translate abstract qualities into numerical values. Influence, sentiment and loyalty are all major factors in determining the impact of social media on your business, because hard numbers and ROI come later. Should we really rely on these algorithms, and will we ever be able to trust them completely?

Are they just a new way to automate the customer experience, like auto replies and automated phone menus? The consensus is that the human element will always dominate in the practice of interpreting human interactions, at least in terms of reliability. And you can manage to operate a social media presence for your business without putting all of your eggs into that basket.

Social Media Tools of the Trade

The other problem is that sentiment analysis is almost entirely useless. Even among massive companies with huge data sets, hard negative/strong positive sentiment is a very small percentage as compared to "neutral" interactions. So, if you have the "luxury" of being a small enough company, maybe try to measure these things manually. Combining Google Analytics with the built-in measurement tools of Twitter and Facebook can give you a very good idea where you stand at no cost at all, especially if you're tracking month-to-month growth and incorporating multivariate testing into your basic social strategy. You can use Klout to gauge influence, or just rely on that good old common sense you've got lying around somewhere.

If you're getting too big to leave things to chance, a few significant companies in the market of big data keep popping up. Radian 6 is an industry leader in social media data collection/analysis. Metrica does the same, with a slightly more human-centered approach. Hadoop is a recommended file management system to store and organize your data. You'll pay real money for these services, but you'll be doing it because you're at a point where you have no choice but to invest in that side of the business, and you don't want to throw money at a crap shoot.

Analyzing the Ever Changing Social Network

Scientifically speaking, you'll be analyzing an environment that is in constant flux, and the action of observing it has an effect on it. People are more likely to complain when you make it that easy. You'll have your chin out there taking blows and you'll need to react swiftly. It's important to have a solid advocate at the top of the company and a direct line (Bat-phone) that can allow you to solve any problems immediately. If your social media director is not completely empowered, then they must have close contact with the CEO or someone who is. Red tape destroys a company's ability to operate an effective social presence.

Also, don't spend countless hours or excessive dollars trying to determine the "why" of every negative interaction. There's a vast spread of strange stuff out there and we can't attach meaning to everything and everyone. When negative reactions start to add up, you can begin to understand a common theme within your data or from your observation that can result in a business action. Prior to that, the most you can do is treat people like people, not digital units. You might find them reacting in kind, and you'll start to see that intangible quality of loyalty creeping in.

 

 

Source : cmswire[dot]com

Stop Before You Overhaul: 5 Ways Testing Can Maximize Impact with Minimal Changes

An overarching site overhaul is often a marketer's go-to solution when online sales and conversion rates are sinking. After all, if bounce rates are high, average order values aren’t up to snuff, and one-time-buyers are the norm, it must be the website's fault … right? 

Right, but … when solving issues that are isolated to specific points of interaction or achieving certain tangible outcomes, it's usually not the whole website that needs attention. More often than not, all that’s needed is some strategic testing and targeting, followed by a few powerful modifications based on the results.

If you’re seriously considering making global site changes in the name of improving sales and conversions — or already took the plunge and need to regain lost ground — consider the following minimal changes to make a big impact on key website pages:

1. Homepage: First Impressions Count

The homepage is usually the first page visitors see and the first one marketers want to modify. Before making big changes, consider the top objectives of an e-commerce homepage: to display products/services, to encourage navigation to other parts of the site, and to allow visitors to search directly and easily for what they’re looking for.

Testing results of hundreds of retail sites consistently reveal that keeping the visual display clean and compelling attracts more engagement. A cluttered, busy collage of products, on the other hand, is likely to overwhelm visitors and drive them away.

Is your navigation bar also clear and intuitive? Make sure that category and product navigation options are especially prominent, well positioned and easy to identify. Lowes.com does a good job of using icons with rollover text to engage visitors and direct them to the desired product or category.

Finally, if you’re trying to attract attention to a new product, consider using a contrasting color for the section of the navigation bar that links to that product, so that it stands out from the other categories.

2. Category Pages: Sorting Things Out

Because category pages revolve around visitors’ need to search for and sort through products or service types, any updates to this section should enhance the visitor’s ability to filter and find. It’s easy to fall into the trap of ignoring category pages or writing them off as a vehicle that simply exists to transport visitors to the pages that really count, but testing shows otherwise.

For instance, multivariate testing results for Harry and David revealed that simply increasing the number of products displayed from 3 to 4 in a row of category results, and adding an “Add to Cart” button underneath each of those products resulted in dramatic lifts in conversion and overall revenue generation.

Clear calls-to-action for featured or sales items also assist in transforming browsers into buyers. And quick view functionality allows for visual inspection and comparison with other products, without forcing a visitor to commit to a click-through before they’re ready. Finally, allowing customers to save searches for later provides visitors convenience and therefore creates loyalty.

Zappos.com’s “Save This Search” function allows visitors to save a particular category search with a relevant name, so they can return at a later time, choose their products and complete the purchase. After all, you can’t always control whether a customer leaves, but you can certainly make it easier for them to find their way back.

3. Product Pages: The Big Display

Since product pages are all about encouraging visitors to make the purchase, a retailer’s job here is to inform, make customers comfortable with the product and simplify buying.

 

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Source : cmswire[dot]com