Mailing List and Social Media Icons on Home Page

[nmancini]

http://jgc.stanford.edu/

Please remove the "Join Our Mailing List" link from the Upcoming Events Box, and incorporate it in the string of social media links at the bottom left of the page.

I would like to see three icons: "f" that links to our facebook page "t" that links to our twitter page (as is) "youtube" that links to Stanford's YouTube page. Our first video will be up soon.

Please remove the other icons.

Please add "Stay Informed" link that goes to our sign in on the Contact Us page

[JBB]

It is customary to have FB like buttons and Google +1 buttons in addition to the ones you listed. These two buttons allow people to indicate an interest in our site with a click that, among other things, surfaces in the social feeds of their peers which is a top driver of traffic.

[JBB]

Please provide the specific link to the youtube stream you have in mind.

[JBB]

I've linked to the generic Stanford University one for now.

[JBB]

I've left in the social news feed capability via G+1 and FB Like for now. If there is rationale for not wanting this we can remove them later.

[nmancini]

Jay, It is the same rationale I have put forward for nine months. I am benchmarking our decisions as to social media against the University, the seven schools, and the six research centers most aligned with JGC with whom I consult on a regular basis. None of them employ a FB Like icon on their main pages. Only the School of Engineering is testing Google+. Our strategy is to use the icons on the JGC main page to connect visitors to deeper JGC content. The current string of seven icons – four of which are related to FB and two of which don’t lead the viewer to active pages – is confusing, redundant, and off-strategy. nm

From: JBB [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 6:00 PM To: JBB/jgc-web2 Cc: Mancini, Nancy Subject: Re: [jgc-web2] Mailing List and Social Media Icons on Home Page (#298)

I've left in the social news feed capability via G+1 and FB Like for now. If there is rationale for not wanting this we can remove them later.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/JBB/jgc-web2/issues/298#issuecomment-9325345.

[nmancini]

Great. Thanks.

From: JBB [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2012 5:59 PM To: JBB/jgc-web2 Cc: Mancini, Nancy Subject: Re: [jgc-web2] Mailing List and Social Media Icons on Home Page (#298)

I've linked to the generic Stanford University one for now.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/JBB/jgc-web2/issues/298#issuecomment-9325339.

[JBB]

I am removing the like and G+1 buttons that allow for social recommendations and enable the network effect of the social graph. I want to go on the record saying I don't think this is a good decision. It seems inconsistent with investing in having a single node on the social graph in the form of a Facebook page and it is also precludes our ability to use the social graphs of Facebook and Google to grow awareness of our efforts. Not just as a technologist, but as someone who just likes JGC and wants the organization to be successful, I haven't heard anything that outweighs the benefits of participating in social network recommendations and the uniquely powerful network effect you get from it.

To the extent that that the rationale for not doing it is other like-minded entities with which we are familiar are not doing it, I don't think that analysis is the right one for many reasons, but even if I did I strongly suspect it won't be long before more and more of these sites will take advantage of social recommendations. I note that well respected http://www.chapinhall.org/ already features a FB Like button prominently.

[nmancini]

Thanks Jay. Most of the people I talk to about social media strategy do employ social recommendation and sharing capabilities on their websites – just not on the home page. The capabilities are embedded in their work and in their editorial pages. An example from SUSE; http://ed.stanford.edu/news/school-reform-gets-real-world. Another example from SoE: http://engineering.stanford.edu/news/scratching-surface-stanford-engineers-examine-uv-effects-skin-mechanics. This is the example (minus the ability to comment) that we have put forward for issue briefs: http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_role_of_brand_in_the_nonprofit_sector?utm_source=Enews12_02_16&utm_medium=email&utm_content=3&utm_campaign=the_role_of_brand.

This is what we would like to move toward, and have been talking about it for a long time. It is on page 19 of the website requirements document we prepared last spring. We couldn’t agree more that growing awareness of our efforts is enhanced by social media. But our strategy is to do that directly from the content, not on the home page where the strategy is to pull, not push.

From: JBB [mailto:notifications@github.com] Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 3:32 PM To: JBB/jgc-web2 Cc: Mancini, Nancy Subject: Re: [jgc-web2] Mailing List and Social Media Icons on Home Page (#298)

I am removing the like and G+1 buttons that allow for social recommendations and enable the network effect of the social graph. I want to go on the record saying I don't think this is a good decision. It seems inconsistent with investing in having a single node on the social graph in the form of a Facebook page and it is also precludes our ability to use the social graphs of Facebook and Google to grow awareness of our efforts. Not just as a technologist, but as someone who just likes JGC and wants the organization to be successful, I haven't heard anything that outweighs the benefits of participating in social network recommendations and the uniquely powerful network effect you get from it.

To the extent that that the rationale for not doing it is other like-minded entities with which we are familiar are not doing it, I don't think that analysis is the right one for many reasons, but even if I did I strongly suspect it won't be long before more and more of these sites will take advantage of social recommendations. I note that well respected http://www.chapinhall.org/ already features a FB Like button prominently.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com/JBB/jgc-web2/issues/298#issuecomment-9360602.