Armadillo Studios is Officially NationBuilder Architect Approved
August 21, 2014
It is with great pleasure I get announce that after a year long courtship, Armadillo Studios Inc., is an approved member of the NationBuilder Architect program.
For those unfamiliar, NationBuilder is one of the fastest growing and most popular Content Management Systems to hit the market in the past few years. Developed off the backs of members of Obama’s highly touted technical team, NationBuilder is an incredibly powerful web site platform for political and non-profits looking to raise money, connect with volunteers and actively engage with their user base.
NationBuilder is a software platform that combines your people database, website, and communication tools like email, text messaging, and social media—all in one. Accessible and affordable, NationBuilder helps people all over the world create more meaningful relationships. Whether you’re an author, activist, small business owner, or politician, we provide the tools to build a community around whatever it is you were meant to do.
As you can imagine the NaitonBuilder platform is a powerful tool to help candidates and organizations connect beyond the typical methods found on a normal CMS. As one can see from the work with did with Alberta MLA Steve Young, our first NationBuilder web site, the system is a powerful way to transform your site into something other than a one-way broadcasting tool.
I’m excited to add NationBuilder to the growing list of services that Armadillo Studios provides for our Business, Not-For-Profit and Political customers. If you feel that NationBuilder is a tool that might interest, send me a note at cturner@armadillostudios.ca and I’d love to chat with you about the pros and cons.
Also, I would like to give a shout out to Brendan Mulvihill of EDAHelp for his guidance with working with the NationBuilder System.
Categories: Armadillo Studios News,Corporate News,NationBuilder
Co-organizing and Sponsoring WordCamp
June 7, 2014
It goes without saying that I’m a huge fan of WordPress. Not only is WordPress Armadillo’s core speciality and go to Content Management System (CMS), but it is also one of the easiest to use, intuitive and powerful tools out there for creating robust web sites. So it is with great pleasure that I get to announce that not only is Armadillo Studios a sponsor of WordCamp Calgary 2014 on June 14th, but I am also one of the core co-organizers of this year’s edition.
If you’re unfamiliar with WordCamp Calgary, here’s a bit of an intro into the event.
WordCamp Calgary 2014 is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. This year’s edition is planned for June 14th at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
This year’s conference is not only dedicated to celebrating the growing WordPress community in Calgary, but looking at how we can push WordPress to being more than just a “blogging tool”. Through a series of sessions, panels, hands-on workshops and events we are aiming to help grow the WordPress community in the city. This year’s one-day conference is jam-packed with great content for a wide spectrum of WordPress users – from content editors all the way to hard-core coders.
There is something for everyone at WordCamp Calgary 2014.
So if you interested in attending WordCamp Calgary and helping to build the great WordPress community in the city, make sure you register today!
Some Thoughts on The Canadian Ant-Spam Legislation (CASL)
May 28, 2014
Before I start, please read this:
As a web designer and e-mail marketer, these comments and thoughts are based on my interpretation of Canada’s new Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL) based on my research and conversations. Since key components of CASL kick in on July 1st of this year it is best to consult professional legal consul for clarifications on the various elements of this legislation and how it will affect your marketing operations.
For the past month I have been attending a variety of talks and having conversations with legal acquaintances on “The Canadian Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)”:http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home. Since this legislation posses to severely disrupt the marketing plans of many businesses and non-profit organizations, I felt it was time to jot down a few thoughts regarding the legislation and why people should pay attention.
1. What is CASL
You can read about CASL on “the government’s web site”:http://fightspam.gc.ca/eic/site/030.nsf/eng/home, but as with any legal document and government document for the average citizen the information within isn’t as clear as could be. So if you’re looking for resources in a more plain language you may want to check out these resource:
* “MillerThompson’s CASL information”:http://www.millerthomson.com/en/our-services/anti-spam-casl and “one-pager”:http://millerthomson.com/assets/files/article_attachments3/CASL-on-a-page.pdf.
* “Stephen King’s Blog Post”:http://stephdokin.com/10-tips-to-prepare-for-canadas-new-anti-spam-law-casl-starting-july-1-2014/?utm_content=buffer08bda&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
* “Elite Email’s guide to CASL”:http://www.eliteemail.com/learning-center/casl/page6.html and “CASL in plain language”:http://blog.eliteemail.com/2013/05/16/all-about-casl-canadas-anti-spam-legislation/.
There are elements of CASL that make a tonne of sense, such as rules about subscribe buttons, adding physical mailing addresses and properly representing your organization in e-mail communications. Where CASL really gets confusing is in the definition of expressed and implied consent.
2. I’ve Heard a Lot of People Talking About It, But Is CASL Really That Bad?
From an e-mail marketing and small business owner perspective, my interpretation is that CASL is bad. Really bad.
One of the most confusing elements of CASL is that by *July 1st, 2014* all senders of commercial emails (i.e. email newsletters, advertising emails, anything to do with E-Mail Marketing lists) must have received expressed consent from receivers *and* be able to prove that they received “expressed consent”:http://www.eliteemail.com/learning-center/casl/page5.html to continue sending out e-mail messages to existing subscribers. _After_ July 1st, they will not be able to ask for expressed consent for existing e-mail marketing lists.
In laman’s terms, what this means is that businesses and organizations who have spent year’s building an e-mail marketing list *need* to sent a note out to all their users and request them to send an email back of written consent saying that they agree to receive e-mails from the business or non-profit moving forward. And this has to be done by *July 1st, 2014*. After that you’re not allowed to ask for expressed consent from those lists.
Now, as any e-mail marketer knows, the average good open rate for emails is about 20-30% for a single email blast, with a click through rate between 10-15%. So knowing those numbers the likely hood of 100% of your current e-mail marketing list replying back with expressed consent will be far less. In my opinion, this will be the biggest damage that CASL imposes on to organizations, by essentially making their existing marketing lists useless.
3. No seriously, is CASL really this Bad?
Yes and in my opinion, it should be taken very seriously. I maybe just an e-mail marketer, but there are two key reactionary signs by other groups to help understand how serious this law _actually_ is.
The first indicator, is the reaction by many legal firms to CASL. For the past few weeks, many people have started receiving emails from Legal firms requesting *expressed consent* for e-mail marketing subscriptions. Given that it’s the job of legal firms to understand and abide by all aspects of the law, their serious reaction is a telltale sign about how important CASL compliance is.
The second indicator, is actually one of the key exemptions of the law. It also has to be the most comical aspect of the legislation. There is actually one group of organizations that is completely exempt from CASL and that’s *political parties*. Not to sound like a conspiracy theory nutjob, but if CASL _wasn’t a big deal and wasn’t disruptive_, I doubt a genre of organizations that rely solely on e-marketing for funding wouldn’t be exempt from CASL’s rule.
4. But I’m Using Constant Contact, Mailchimp, etc., I should be fine with CASL.
Unfortunately not. Since many of the top e-mail marketing tools out there are American based, many of them haven’t taken the proper steps to become CASL compliant. (Although, many of their existing features do cover some elements of CASL) When you factor in how small of a market Canadian subscribers are to their bottom lines and the fact that compliance with CASL rolled out within 6 months, it’s easy to understand why these top companies don’t have the proper tools in place to help Canadian marketers.
In addition, it’s also not the responsibility of Third Party providers to receive consent for e-mail marketers, that responsibility rests solely on the heads of *the sender*. So in the end hiding behind a third party provider won’t be good enough under CASL.
In the two talks I’ve attended, the most fascinating aspect of CASL has been watching the audience reaction upon understanding the key elements of the legislation. Most people’s reaction, and my own included, swayed from intense rage to out right denial.
For a legislation designed to help consumers and prevent SPAM, CASL appears to be doing more harm to business owners and non-profits than good. The fines for “CASL are pretty extensive”:http://www.davis.ca/uploads/files/CASL-Penalties.pdf and it opens the door for private litigation against companies that don’t comply, so it would be wise to make these changes. CASL should be taken seriously by all businesses and non-profits, if you have questions do your research and contact legal consul.
But do it quick, as many of the key elements of this legislation kick in just over a month.
Bringing To Life The YMCA Calgary’s Annual Report
May 9, 2014
One of the things I love to do is help people tell the story of their businesses or organizations online. Whether it’s through creating a social media strategy, building a new web site or crafting a customized micro site. Earlier this month Armadillo Studios was asked by The YMCA Calgary to help them bring to life their “2013 Annual Report”:http://annualreport.ymcacalgary.org/.
The project consisted of tying together the stories, marketing material, YouTube videos and important financial data of their year end report with a customized illustration by local artist Mark Murias to help showcase the organization’s vision for the upcoming year. Working together with the YMCA’s communications team we developed a very cool interactive _Where’s Waldo_ micro site leveraging HTML5 animations and some useful modal JQuery scripts to help create a unique experience for their passionate supporters.
When users arrive at the site they are greeted by a beautiful illustrative collage of the city and a series of clickable links that open up to personal testimonials of the YMCA’s impact, beautiful visualizations of the YMCA, videos of the executive team and links to important elements within the YMCA’s web site. As mentioned, the site has a wonderful and playful _Where’s Waldo_ vibe, where users can scour the illustration to find the click points. It’s great representation of the YMCA and how important it is to the community.
It was such a pleasure to work with the Communications team at The YMCA and to be part of this big milestone.
The Twitterfication of Facebook and The Facebookification of Twitter
April 30, 2014
This post has been re-posted from Armadillo’s President’s personal web site as it touches upon a subject that we’re currently very interested in. We hope you enjoy this post and if you have any questions feel free to contact us at any time.
So it’s been a while since I’ve written or talked about the state of the Social Media sphere on the old c.t.overdrive. Frankly, in regards to the world of Social Media there really hasn’t been a change big enough to warrant a post and plus there are thousands, upon thousands, upon thousands of Social Media Experts writing about the latest social media gaff or trend.
But today I received my updated Twitter profile, which although incredibly snazzy looks eerily similar to something… but I can’t put my finger on it.
Oh yes, it looks incredibly similar to my Facebook profile.
Yes, it’s official the Twitterfication of Facebook and the Facebookification of Twitter are finally complete.
Now, to be honest the change in both Twitter and Facebook isn’t really that ground breaking. Both Twitter and Facebook have been working to incorporate the UX/UI benefits of their two successful offspring networks for quite sometime. For Twitter it’s been working to adopt ideas from Medium and Facebook with it’s ever popular Instagram. While these sorts of changes are technically dramatic given the scale of both networks, these alone are really just cosmetic and minor functionality changes to adapt to the changing design aesthetic and functionality demands of our internet usage. I wouldn’t say they’re ground breaking changes that warrant a blog post.
But in my opinion, this change really does signal something else. To me this solidifies the end of Social Media phase of the Internet’s evolution. Similar to how the explosion and dominance of Social Media killed the Web 2.0 phase, we have officially reached peak Social Media.
Let me put it this way, with the two largest Social Media golden childs (Twitter and Facebook) working to mimic their network’s UI and interactions after their competitor’s and spending more time focusing on becoming a key communication channels and personal data resources rather than on social innovation, where is the future of Social Media heading?
Think about it, when was the last time a new social network really disrupted the online social space? I would say we haven’t seen any real innovation in the realm of Social Media since Instagram and that is at least five years old. Does anyone think that there is a Social Media network like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram or even Foursquare that will revolutionize the way we use the internet in the same way?
Maybe, but I’m not seeing it right now.
Now don’t get me wrong, Humans and Society will always Innovate. It’s in our nature. And for me to say otherwise would make me sound like the guy who proclaimed that we should shut down the patent office because nothing will surpass the Fax machine. But right now with the way in which Start-ups, Entrepreneurs and Innovators are focusing their attention it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever see a time period of crazy innovation and evolution in the Social Media atmosphere like we did towards the end of the 2000s, when everything changed.
I guess what I’m getting at is a question that is asked of me a lot nowadays and that is What is the next big Facebook, Twitter, etc? To me I don’t think there is anything on the horizon. To me we’ve come to the end of the golden age of the Social Media phase.
Will there be something new in the future. I can almost guarantee it, but it won’t be a social network like we’re used to. That phase of the internet is over.