Conversation with Alignmark President Diane NewmanI’m really big on the Web. I’ve been trying to push this company to do more stuff on the Web since I got her two years ago. It’s the way of the future. Heck, it’s the way of the present, and we’re falling behind. That’s why I want every one of our employees to have their bio and photo on the web. It makes us look bad if we don’t have the information up there for people to see.
I’d have communications take on the project, but Roger’s got things so screwed up over there, that I’d never trust them to get every one’s bios right. So we’ll let people write their own or just pull over whatever their existing bio is. The priority is to get this stuff up on the web. The senior staff already have bios written so for them it’s just a matter of putting it on the Web.
I’m setting a deadline of two weeks from when you notify everyone. That’s plenty of time to get this done. And we need to get it done. People are looking at this stuff and the easier it is to get it to them the more business we’ll get. When a potential client requests an information packet from us it can take three days for it to get there. That’s three days that they can look at other firms. So that’s business we’re losing. And you know what the most important part of those information packets is? The staff bios. If we get them up on the Web, potential clients could get all the information they need right then and there. We’ll still send out the nice packet, but in the meantime, they got the information right.
Plus, we know people are looking at our Web site when they think about doing work with us. Talk to Roger about that. He’ll give you the numbers on that.
I know the staff’s going to resist it, so you’ve got to convince them this change is needed needed. And look, in the end it will make things easier for them. With everyone’s bios on the web, senior staff will get less requests for information on their team. That will give them more time to concentrate on their real work. I’ve seen the time-sheets too. Look at this, last month alone our project managers spent an average of 8 hours each responding to clients’ requests for information on their staff. 8 hours! That’s a whole day!
But be careful about how much you really tell people. IT’s got this content management tool that they’re all proud of, and they say they can allow everyone to post their own web sites in addition to the bio, but I’m not interested in that. I still haven’t fought that battle with IT, but for now, just make it clear that employees aren’t supposed to have anything up their but their bios and they’re photos and I don’t want them to use any fancy fonts or colored fonts or anything. Just the bio and the photo, and they’re name, that’s all people want to see.
E-mail from Alignmark Director of Communication Roger Waterman
This is great that we’re putting everyone’s bios on the web site. It’s very important that you let people know that this is a big priority for Alignmark. Our web site receives an average of 1,320 visitors each week. Last year, the Alignmark web site won a Ragan Communication Best-of-the-Web award for interactive design. Client surveys indicate 47% of our contracts indicate that they read one or more employee bio before they decide to do business with us, so an accessible staff bio can make a real difference in the bottom line. If anyone would like the communications department to review their bio, they can e-mail it to me. Make sure everyone writing their bio for the first time knows it must contain their prior work experience, education, awards etc., and their special areas of expertise.
Thanks for all your hard work setting up this new system. This is a big step forward for Alignmark.
Roger Waterman
Director of Communications
Content Management Tool instructions from IT AdministratorWe’re using Blogger software to set this all up, so everyone will have to launch Internet Explorer or their preferred internet browser and log on to
http://www.blogger.com/ to start.
Everyone’s username will be the first letter of their first name followed by their last name.
Everyone’s default password will be their last name. We recommend you change this password after your first successful login by clicking on the “change password” link on the right hand side of the screen.
Enter your username and password, then click “sign in.”
Under the word “Dashboard,” you will see a list of "blogs." In your case, however, there will be only one blog. Click on that blog—the one with your name on it—and then you can put in your bio.
Once you click on it, you’ll see tabs for “Posting,” “Settings,” “Templates,” “and “View Blog.”
You will be on the “Posting” tab when you first get to this page.
Go to the “Settings” tab by clicking on the word “Settings” in the “Settings” tab.
Underneath this tab you will see a second level of navigation. Stay in the “Basic” field. Do not edit settings in any of the other fields.
Enter your name for the “Title”
Enter your job title” for the “Description.”
Do not change any other settings.
Do not ever click on the “Template” tab. You can seriously mess up your page by editing anything here, or by changing your template. All of your templates have been modified from a basic Blogger template to allow this page to act more like a web page and less like a blog. If you change your template, you will use all of these modifications, and be unable to post to your bio/web page until IT has reconfigured it. So just don’t even go near the “Template” tab.
When you’re done with the “Settings” tab, click on the “Posting” tab. This is where you post information to your blog. For our purposes you will only need to know how to add your bio, but you could use this to add additional pages to your bio/web site should you choose to do so.
You’ll see a field for “title,” “link,” and then a large field where you can enter your main text. Above this large field, you’ll see several buttons. These should look familiar to what you’re used to seeing in Microsoft Word. “b” will make highlighted text bold, “I” will make highlighted text italicized, the “T” button allows you to change your font. The four buttons with the lines on them are for changing the alignment. The button with the lines and the numbers allows you to create numbered lists. The buttons with the bullets and the numbers allows you to create bulleted and numbered lists. The button with the big quote marks on it is for indenting block quotes. The ABC-checkmark button allows you to spell-check your text. The button that looks like a picture allows you to insert a picture from your computer. This is what you will use to add your headshot to the page. Click on it and a window labeled
http://photos.blogger.co-m/ – Blogger:Upload Images will appear.
Underneath the “Add an Image from your computer” field, click on the “browse” button and navigate to your headshot on your hard drive. (Most of yours will be located in you “My Pictures” folder in “My Documents.”)
Once you’ve got the picture you want, you can also choose its size and layout, we recommend “small,” and “left,” but you can experiment with other choices if you like. Be careful if you use “large,” however. If your photo is too large and you use this setting, it will throw off the alignment of your web page. Then click the “Upload Image” button.
The last button that looks like an eraser allows you to delete the text. There’s also a “Preview” link you can click on to see how it all looks before you publish. But making changes to published content is so simple that it’s probably best just to publish it and then click “View Blog” to give it a look, and then make any changes, and republish, and so on.
The “title” should be “Bio”
Don’t change the font type or the font size. Enter your bio either by typing it into the box, or by cutting and pasting it. When you’re happy with it, click on the “Publish Post” button and then after the posting status has reached 100% you can click on the “View Blog” tab to see your post in a new window.
All employees must have a bio and a head shot. Additional pages are optional. Should you choose to use any additional pages be aware that they’re posting order will be based on their posting date. Those posted most recently will appear toward the top of the page. Your bio must appear at the top, so if you post anything after posting the bio, please make sure you modify the posting date so that it is later than the posting date/time of your bio.
Stan TrevorIT Administrator
