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Follow These 12 Simple Rules To Design A Website That Grows Brand Value and Builds Brand Equity

12/14/2018

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Good Design is Powerful. Great Design is Invisible. - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
“Good design accelerates the adoption of new ideas.”
---Yves Behar (Swiss designer, entrepreneur and an educator)
 
Over the years, we’ve helped a good number of startup companies and non-profit organizations develop and implement long-term growth strategies. Without question, one of biggest challenges we typically face when working with their leadership teams is convincing them to invest aggressively in their brands.

We’ve found that entrepreneurs and non-profit executives often place branding on the lower end of the priority scale because it's difficult for them to see the tangible benefits. Oftentimes, they assume that money spent on branding diminishes their operational capacity. Such thinking tends to be a penny-wise but pound-foolish approach.

This is particularly true when it comes to web design. In today’s world, your website is typically one of the first points of contact between your organization and your target audience. Strong web design often propels your organization to success. Conversely, poor web design can completely subvert your mission.

First impressions matter. Make a bad impression, and you’ll likely lose potential conversions. Make a good one, and you’ll typically gain new customers. More importantly, you’ll potentially earn a customer for life if you make a great impression.

In other words, quality web design is crucial to your mission. A high-quality website greatly increases the value of your brand in the minds of your target audience. Furthermore, wise investments in your digital assets ultimately build brand equity for your organization. With this in mind, here are the twelve design rules we suggest you follow in order to squeeze the most out of your website.
​
RULE #1 – Visual Design Matters
Visual branding transcends every aspect of a company's presence in the marketplace. Consequently, effective graphic design is crucial if you wish to generate interest and attention from your target audience. The look and feel of your website often determines whether customers will interact or do business with you in just a few short seconds.

Effective design takes time, effort and a modicum of skill.  That said, the effectiveness
Good Design is Powerful. Great Design is Invisible. - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
of your design will be evaluated instantly by your visitors. Their first impressions will likely determine if, when and how they decide to interact with your site, brand or business. A visually pleasing design scheme will create a favorable first impression and increase visitor engagement.

Here are the design elements that attract your visitor’s attention first and foremost:
  • Your images and graphics (particularly if they're large or over-sized)
  • Your logo and your branded elements
  • Your font and color schemes
  • Your main navigation menu
  • Your text headlines
  • Your website footer and contact information

Tip: Effective visuals and a crisp, clean design add credibility and legitimacy to your website. Effective design also helps establish trust in your brand. This is especially important if you're trying to convert a sale or sway opinions. A visitor will associate the experience they have on your website with the experience they are likely to have with you in real life.
 
 
RULE #2 – Get to Know SEO
To make the most of your Internet real estate, you need to design and build a website that can be found on the major search engines (Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc.).

The art and science of ranking in search is commonly known as Search Engine Optimization (SEO). An effective content strategy accounts for the search terms your target audience uses on a day-to-day basis. An effective strategy also incorporates customized content (e.g. videos, blog articles, podcasts, e-books, etc.) based on your audience's demands and preferences.

Successful SEO requires patience and attention to detail. An extensive knowledge of how search engines work is helpful, and it generally takes time and practice to achieve sustainable success. That said, you’ll be off to a good start and probably gain an advantage over your competition once you get the basics down. After mastering the basics, you can always move on to advanced levels of SEO down the road.

Tip: If you’re just starting out with SEO, it’s a good idea to begin simple. For example, concentrate on improving your site in each of the following five areas:
  • The quantity and quality of inbound links to your website
  • Fresh and regular keyword-rich content updates
  • Optimized meta descriptions and title tags
  • Creating an efficient and effective User Experience (UX)
  • Mobile friendliness / mobile optimization

​
RULE #3 – Responsive Websites Rank Better
Mobile search now accounts for over 60% of total search volume; and that figure is only expected to increase over the next few years.

Indeed, 80% of internet users own a smartphone, and Google indicates that “61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.” Therefore, the look, feel, form and function of your website on mobile devices is crucial to your long-term success.
Today, every website should be responsive. If you don’t have the time or budget develop a mobile application, then responsive web design is the preferred solution.

With responsive web design, a designer creates a site that “responds to” or automatically resizes
Responsive Website Example  - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
based on the dimensions of the viewing device. For example, the look and feel of a site viewed on an over-sized desktop computer monitor, a laptop, or devices with small screens such as smartphones and tablets, is generally consistent across all devices.

Tip: Most of the major drag-and-drop website builders (e.g. Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, etc.) now include responsive design templates as part of their standard product offerings.


RULE #4 – Your Navigation Menu Matters
Navigation is a crucial component of effective website design. Your navigation menu is basically a map that displays the key places you want your visitors to explore. If your website’s navigation menu isn’t effective, visitors will overlook important content. Worse still, they may become frustrated and abandon your site altogether.

When examining the effectiveness of your website's navigation menu, it's important to ensure that it’s clear, concise and relatively simple. Common characteristics of an effective navigation menu include:
  • It’s easy to find – either across the top horizontally or on the left as a vertical sidebar
  • It’s consistent – visitors will find your navigation menu in the same location on every page
  • It’s specific – avoid overly generic phrases and buzzwords (use descriptive names instead)
  • It’s minimal – streamline the number of navigation links (seven main menu items is now considered a best-practice maximum)
  • It’s a location marker – it's best to provide visitors clues as to where they are once they navigate away from your home page (use a consistent highlight appearance throughout your site)

Tip: The bottom of your page isn’t necessarily the end of your site and the space for your copyright notice. An effective footer also allows visitors dig deeper into your site.  Meaning, you shouldn't forget to include a secondary navigation menu in your website footer. As an added benefit, the additional internal links positively influence your page search rankings.
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RULE #5 – Take Time When Crafting Your Content Headers
If you effectively utilize and optimize your h1, h2 and h3 header tags, you can greatly improve your website’s search rankings and thereby increase organic traffic. That said,  designers all too often miss the mark when creating the header tags for their web pages. 

Header tags are a critical on-page SEO factor because search engines use them to categorize your site’s content. Search engines prioritize the copy in your header tags above your text paragraph sections. The hierarchy begins with your h1 tag and moves down in importance to the h2, h3, etc. In other words, your header tags supplement the mission or purpose of your web pages.

It’s important to structure your header tags appropriately. To truly be effective, it’s important to include short-tail and long-tail keywords in your header tag content. When the search engines crawl your site, they read your header tags and recognize the keywords you’ve incorporated. They’re factored in to the algorithms the search engines use to prioritize and rank your pages in their search results.

Tip: Your h1 tag should contain keywords targeted toward your audience. Your keywords should relate directly to your page title as well as your body content. As a general rule, you should only use one h1 tag on each page.

Your h2 tags are subheadings. They should contain keywords related to your h1 tag. Subsequently, your h3 tags are subheadings for your h2 tags, etc. In short, order your header tags in a hierarchy based on importance.
​

Also, ensure that your header tags are grammatically correct and coherent. Packing your header tags with keywords may in-fact hurt your search rankings. Google and Bing’s algorithms are sophisticated – attempts to manipulate search rankings generally do more harm than good.
 

RULE #6 –Forget the Fold
The term “above the fold” refers to the portion of a web page that’s visible in a browser window when the page first loads.  The remaining portion of the page that requires scrolling in order to view content is called the "below the fold" section.

Old design standards emphasized keeping as much relevant content above the fold as the space allowed for. That said, above the fold rules are mostly old news today.
Above the Fold Website Example - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
Most visitors are comfortable scrolling a web page these days. Consequently, design emphasis has shifted toward optimizing aesthetics and form styling in recent years. A longer home page is now acceptable and offers some strategic advantages as well. Including 3-5 sections on your home page helps point visitors to key areas of your site. It also creates a more seamless user experience for your visitors.

Tip: Here’s a list of the key elements you should consider including in the sections of your home page:
  • An elevator pitch (brief about us)
  • A compelling value proposition
  • An introductory video
  • An overview of your products and/or services
  • A list of features and benefits
  • Testimonials or press mentions
  • Case studies/success stories
 

RULE #7 – Make Effective Use of White Space
Believe it or not, white space is a critical design element. The term refers to the areas around your page elements that are empty and lack content or visual items.

White space improves readability and helps you compartmentalize your content. It also tends to decrease the apprehension level of new visitors. A page stuffed full of text and/or graphics with minimal white space generally appears busy or cluttered. This diminishes your user experience (UX) and typically leads to a high bounce rate.
Incredibly, nearly ninety percent of all purchase decisions are made subconsciously. This means that your customers are driven by emotional processes, rather than intellectual ones. In other words, comforting aesthetics, high-quality visual branding and positive user experiences tend to trigger calls to action.
Website Whitespace Example - White Space - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
Tip: If your web page lacks white space, review the page and strip elements or content that aren't necessary to the purpose of the page. After that, make sure this content is properly grouped so users are able to distinguish correlations on the page.
 

RULE #8 – Invest Time In Social Media
Effective use of social media really drives website traffic. In fact, over 26% of all traffic now comes from social media sites vs. 35% from search. Given that 62% of people list social media as a primary news source, your organization can’t afford to be silent on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks if you wish to stay relevant.
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Besides being a valuable traffic and lead source, social media offers a unique opportunity to strengthen your brand’s awareness and reach. While organic search and paid advertisements generate attention, social media tends to spark interest. For example, people can begin following you with a simple click of a button on most social media sites. This provides an opportunity to engage with an interested audience on a regular basis and likely generate additional revenues long-term.

If all this sounds new to you, then we suggest you begin by setting up branded social media accounts and then embed social sharing buttons on the key pages of your website. Social sharing buttons contain icons from your preferred social sites and allow your visitors to share your content directly on their social media feeds. In other words, engaged visitors amplify your brand within their social circles and ultimately drive new traffic to your website.

Tip: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are social media juggernauts. However, they aren't the only players in the game. Indeed, the social media landscape has changed considerably in recent years and the industry is becoming more and more competitive. A plethora of new “free speech” social media startups offer unique opportunities to quickly make a name for yourself. We suggest you check out up-and-coming players like Gab, InfinitySN, Minds and Free Talk which currently seem to be operating under the radar of most major brands. 
 
 
RULE #9 – Leverage and Grow Your Brand Assets
Your website is your public persona. It creates a lasting image of who you are. Therefore, carefully consider what you want your local, domestic and international communities to know about you, your product or your services. Once you've identified your desired game plan, meticulously craft your image and effectively manage your message.
An effective website engages your audience but still conveys critical information in an obvious way. It also allows you tell your brand story in a memorable fashion. Consequently, your website should contain content and images that affirm your vision, mission and values with your target audience. In other words, images and text should come together seamlessly and reflect the attitude and tone of your organization.
Your Brand is what you stand for in the minds of the people you're trying to reach, influence, and move to action. - Chi Rho Consulting - Business Strategy Consultants for startups and entrepreneurs.
Therefore, consider the following as you define or re-evaluate your brand:
  • Put your customer first. What’s the primary purpose of your website? Typically, it’s to drive sales or generally influence behavior. Therefore, ensure that all of your content elements are crafted with your target audience in mind.
  • Develop a “voice" for your organization that reflects your persona. Ideally, your brand voice should be adopted into all your marketing communications materials.  It should be applied to all of your visual elements as well. Is your persona informal? Then, be conversational and fun. Is it upscale? Then be more formal.
  • Create a logo. Consistently use your logo in all your digital communications materials so your target market begins to associate the image with your mission, vision and values.
  • Develop a tagline. Write a clear and concise statement that captures the essence of your brand and seeds your vision in the minds of your target audience.
  • Develop consistency. Ensure that you’re using the same color scheme, logo placement, look and feel throughout all your marketing communications materials.
  • Be true to your brand persona. It’s all for naught if you don't deliver on your brand promises.

Tip: Start by defining your ideal target market before you do anything else. Identify common attribute characteristics like:
  • Age
  • Marital status
  • Education level
  • Political values
  • Ethnicity
  • Location
  • Hobbies and interests
  • Household income

Once you’ve profiled your ideal customers, create content tailored to the audience. Use language and imagery relevant to your target audience and relate on their terms. 


RULE #10 – Font and Color Palates Really Matter
One of the keys to effective web design is to remember that digital marketing is principally text communication. According to Ryan Shafer (Lead Digital Designer at MTV & VH1), “I encourage all budding web designers to embrace that the web is fundamentally about typography design.”
The fundamental truths of type design have been proven out over the centuries. Consequently, there are some basic rules that all web designers should adhere to:

For Headlines
  • Make your titles bold and easy to scan.
  • San serif typefaces are ideal for headlines because of their starkness. Also, they are easy to read at larger font sizes.

For Body Text
  • Solve for maximum legibility.
  • Larger font sizes work better. A 16px font should be the minimum you consider.
  • Limit your line sizes. A good rule of thumb is to avoid lines of text greater than 80 characters long.

As far as your color palate is concerned, the key is to pick a single palate and strictly adhere to it. ALL of your marketing communications materials should maintain the same color palate. Consistency is
Color Theory Infographic - Website Design - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
extremely important when it comes to creating a cohesive color palette for your website and your other mar-comm materials.

A three-color palate is a good rule of thumb. That said, adhere to basic best practices in color theory no matter what color scheme you choose for your brand.

Tip: If you’re a design novice, a number of free online tools and resources are available to point you in the right direction. For color palates, we recommend Adobe Creative Cloud’s Color Wheel and Paletton. For font type selection, check out: Adobe Fonts, Wordmark and Type Scale. 

 
RULE #11 – Maintain Fresh Content
The expression, “content is king” is widely-used these days in digital marketing circles.  So, what exactly does it mean?

For starters, it refers to the fact that the search engines place a premium on new content.  Indeed, the quality and relevancy of your content is essential in determining your page's position in search query results.

Simply updating or refreshing your pages on a regular basis doesn’t make your site “fresh” and more likely to rank effectively within the search engines. Similarly, adding new pages just for the sake of increasing the size of your digital footprint won’t necessarily boost your site on the freshness meter.

Google employs a tool referred to as "Query Deserves Freshness" (QDF) to rank and prioritize new content. This tool monitors search query activities and identifies trending topics that stand out from normal activity. When QDF is triggered, Google looks to see if there’s any fresh content on the topic and then gives that content a boost in their search results.

In other words, if you have fresh content on a trending topic, you’ll likely enjoy a ride at the top of the search results for a period of time. Once the QDF boost wears off, your page generally shuffles back to its original position in the search results.

If you’re a savvy and nimble organization, the QDF algorithm provides opportunities to generate a significant competitive advantage. For example, if you create relevant and robust content in pulse with the hottest trends in your market, you can quickly establish yourself as a thought leader within your industry.

Tip: Follow these five simple guidelines if you struggle to create fresh content:
  • Get involved In the conversation - Social media platforms and discussion groups  are great for keeping a pulse on trending topics in your industry.
  • Monitor your competition – Get an idea of what, when and how your competition communicates. Build off their model and take the things that seem to work for them one step further. In other words, beat them at their own game.
  • Archive inspirational ideas – Broaden your interests beyond your industry category. Identify best practices from other industries and adopt them into your business model. If you’re running dry on fresh ideas, refer to your archive for inspiration.
  • Leverage existing web resources – There are several online tools designed to kick-start the creative process. For example, BuzzSumo allows you to analyze content trends in a variety of industries and identify what works well for various market segments.
  • Employ a copywriter – Copywriters often offer a fresh perspective. A good copywriter will identify fresh content opportunities from your target audience's perspective and keep your organization on the cutting edge of your industry.

 ​
​RULE #12 –Utilize High-Quality Images and Graphics
Eye-catching visual elements that complement your branding have a tremendous impact when used properly. Here are a few factors to consider when selecting graphics and images for your website:
  • Thematic images that represent your products or services
  • Photos that create emotional effects relating to the value of your brand
  • Proprietary photos (i.e. high-quality images of your location, your team members, your products, etc.)
  • Images and graphics that complement your brand standards (color palate consistency, theme, etc.)
  • Maintain a consistent look and feel to the elements throughout your site
No matter what, you’ll want to ensure that the graphics and images you select are high-quality files. Otherwise, your audience may walk away with a negative perception of your organization (e.g. a belief that you products and/or services are low-quality or that you're unlikely to deliver on your brand promises).

Ideally, your organization should use proprietary photos from a professional photographer and
Quality Value Quadrant Chart  - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
customized graphics from a professional designer. That said, there are plenty of affordable stock image sites  to choose from if you happen to have tight resource constraints (e.g. iStock, Adobe Stock, Wikimedia Commons, etc.)
​

If you do decide to use stock images instead of proprietary artwork, be careful to ensure that every image you select matches your brand persona and correlates with your written content. Also, you want to establish a unique brand identity and protect your site from having a generic look and feel, so be sure to avoid popular images if you can.

Tip: Remember that page load time factors in to your site’s search rankings. This is especially true for mobile. Therefore, you’ll want to pay close attention to the size of your image files. Familiarize yourself with Google’s “Image Optimization” guidelines if you want to completely optimize your images.
 
 
CONCLUSIONS
As we stated earlier, your website is often your organization’s primary public persona. It holds enormous influence over your target market’s perception of your products and/or services. More often than not, healthy and flourishing organizations tend to have effective websites; while struggling organizations often have ineffective websites.
Investing in the quality of your website tends to pay substantial dividends over the long run. It’s a direct investment in your brand; and there are countless case studies available online which attest to the bottom-line results that successful branding efforts often achieve.

​Subjectively, prudent investments in your brand assets often create a variety of strategic advantages. For example:
  • Effective branding improves recognition – Brand recognition is a driving factor for any company or organization that wishes to grow. It generates traffic and fuels conversions.
  • Effective websites establish trust – People tend to purchase or frequent businesses that appear polished and legitimate. They’re also much more likely to refer them to their friends.
Coke Coca Cola Market Cap With and Without Brand Value Infographic - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
78% of Buying Decisions are Based on Others Perceptions of a Company and the Experience it Delivers Infographic - Chi Rho Consulting - Strategic Consultancy for Entrepreneurs and Startups
  • Well-branded websites increase advertising effectiveness – Again, branding influences your conversion rate. By investing in your quality of your digital assets, you can lower your marketing spend over the long run.
  • Effective branding builds financial value – If your organization requires loans, investments or an IPO to meet your future growth targets, your brand’s perceived value will play a significant role during negotiations. The greater your devotion to growing your brand's value and building brand equity, the better your negotiating leverage will be.
  • A cohesive brand inspires employees and attracts top-tier talent – If employees are inspired by your public persona they tend to perform better. Similarly, a cohesive brand identity helps you recruit qualified talent to your organization. Having a strong brand turns your logo into a rally flag and your tagline into a source of pride. 
  • Effective branding often generates a competitive advantage – Highly profitable companies tend to have one thing in common. They establish themselves as leaders in their particular industry by building a strong brand and consistently living up to their brand’s promises.


​​Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting
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Revitalizing Education In America (From an Entrepreneur and Investor's Perspective)

11/27/2018

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Picture
“The public library system of the United States is worth preserving.”
---Henry Rollins (American Musician)
 
Up front, we want to make one thing perfectly clear: we are NOT in favor of nationalizing our primary schools nor our secondary educational institutions. Under our Constitution, these matters reside with our state and local governments; and we believe that it should remain that way. Nevertheless, it would be foolish or naive to ignore that the fabric of American education is changing dramatically during the digital revolution.

Take a look at the numbers. The education market in the United States has grown dramatically since the advent of the Internet and it's only expected to grow more over the next several years. In short: the ED hasn't kept pace with the changes; and it’s time we recognize the cultural shift that's occurring as a result. In other words, we ought to re-engineer and re-tool our educational systems; and we ought to act quickly!


THE STARTING POINT
The amount of information available today to the public over the world wide web is unprecedented in our history. Concurrently, the information age has spawned a number of innovations in the field of education. Among the most sweeping changes in primary and secondary research:
  1. Search Engines have effectively replaced the traditional library “Card Catalog” - as well as librarians for the most part.
  2. Wiki sites have become our society's primary encyclopedias.
  3. A plethora of dictionaries, thesauruses and other reference tools are currently available at a moment's notice over the web and through digital distribution platforms.

When you take a step back and look at the big picture, it's evident that how and where we learn in this era is much different than it was before. This led us to ask the following questions: 
  • Aren’t the tools and resources described above the very foundations of a public library system?  If so, why are corporations and select non-profits the principal gate-keepers of vital strategic resources like these? Does the current situation pose national security risks? 
  • If guarding, growing and enhancing these resources is crucial for our nation, then shouldn’t our federal government step in and assert some span of control?
  • If both are true, then when, where, and to what degree should the federal government be involved?

These are the fundamental questions we’ll address in this article. We’ll argue that Americans need to fully understand and quickly accept the fact that educational tools like Google, Wikipedia, and the Dictionary.com’s of the world all serve the public interest and ought to be nationalized to some degree. In other words, a complete re-tooling of our Department of Education is long overdue.
 

AS SIMPLE AS 1,2,3
Here’s where we’d start:
  1. A search engine, an encyclopedia, and other reference tools (e.g. a dictionary and a thesaurus) ought to be considered part of our national library system.
  2. It makes sense for Google & Wikipedia to become public utilities (similar to AT&T way back when),  or whole parts of the ED as soon as possible.
  3. Still allow for competition within these categories through private enterprise.

The proposed system would re-tool the Department of Education; and also support crucial National Security and Defense initiatives.  We’ll explain what we mean as you read on:  
 

MOST OF US NOW CARRY A “POCKET LIBRARY”
Like 77% of all Americans, I own a smartphone; and I often download and access useful apps for personal education, writing and research purposes. The apps on my device include a couple of different Search Engines (Google and Bing), a global encyclopedia (Wikipedia), a dictionary and a thesaurus (my preferred version is Merriam-Webster), as well as a multitude of other small reference tools (e.g. area code lookups and zip code lookups, etc.).

If you were born after 1989, these things probably seem natural.  However, for those of us who are older, the Internet revolutionized access to libraries of information as well as primary and secondary research tools. Imagine: before the 1990's, people actually had to travel (by automobile or by foot) to a library to access a wide body of research materials if they weren’t fortunate enough to own them themselves. Furthermore, if their research requirements were extensive, they often had to travel to multiple locations to complete their research! 

Research tools and materials are vital necessities for individuals with an entrepreneurial mindset: people who wish to invest time and energy in determining their own futures. Nearly every entrepreneur and investor will tell you that if you want to gain advantages over your competition, you need to excel in school and continuously strive for personal growth. In other words, you spend a great deal of time in library facilities.

Any way you look at it, a public library is about education, growth. and learning. It’s a core extension of our public education system. As Campbell Brown of Facebook notes, “It comes down to what your priorities are, and if public education is about children and learning. It’s a core extension of the public education system. As kids, then every decision we make should be focused on the question of 'Is this good for a child?' And that should be the driving focus and the priority when we decide what our policies should be and what our laws should be.”

(Keep in mind that we are all considered children in eyes of our Creator to a certain degree regardless of our age...)

Currently, we have libraries in our public school systems for our children from grades K-12; and reference materials are of course vital to those systems. Ask any teacher, and they’ll definitively tell you that high-caliber tools facilitate quality education. So then, why aren't the tools in our "pocket library" considered an extension of our public education system, if public libraries in fact are?

It boils down to this: some of the tools within our aggregate pocket library must be integrated into the ED in order to effectively manage public education in the United States today. Otherwise, we may put the American way of life at risk as things currently stand.


A CASE FOR NATIONALIZING OUR POCKET LIBRARY
Is it in our best interests to have all our digital research tools developed, managed and updated by private corporations and select non-profits? The answer is unequivocally NO!

Of course, Innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity are the driving factors behind the success of the corporations that maintain our "pocket library" (Google and Microsoft as well as the Wikimedia Foundation and others).  For example, Google launched in 1996 as a research project by PhD students at Stanford University. Two years later, the company received a $100,000 angel investment; and away it went!

Nevertheless, Google has received a great deal of scrutiny and criticism recently from conservative & libertarian political pundits and conservative economists; as well as from radical leftist ideologues like Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

on the right side of the political spectrum, Conservative and Libertarian political pundits accuse the tech monolith of down-ranking sites and pages that don’t align with corporate’s political positions, thereby suppressing free speech. The concerns of the conservative economists are largely geopolitical in nature. For example, Google has agreed to build a censored version of their search engine for communist China. Both sets of concerns suggest that Google deliberately stifles competition and suppresses the very principles that led to the company’s founding: entrepreneurship and innovation!

On the other hand, far-left zealots have seized upon these factors to push forth visions of an impossible socialist utopia. For example, Sanders (a self-proclaimed "Democratic Socialist” demagogue) contends: “You go to your public library, or you call your fire department or police department, what do you think you are calling? These are socialist institutions.”

To be blunt, Senator Sanders full of crap. The police, the fire department and the public library ARE NOT socialist institutions.  Rather, they’re public resources; and there’s are HUGE differences between the two!


BERNIE SANDERS MAY BE MISGUIDED... BUT HE DOES HAVE A POINT
Several of the tools we've listed (i.e. search engines, dictionaries and encyclopedias) and are in-fact primary and secondary research staples used in libraries the world over.  However, unlike brick and mortar libraries, the information available within our "Pocket Library" is decentralized, poorly curated and loosely maintained at the present time. 

For example, a dictionary reference tool now often appears in Google's search results when you include the word “definition” with a search term. That said, the word inclusion criteria (and definitions) appear to be determined by Google itself!

This should concern anyone who believes in the American Dream. If you look under the surface, you'll find that terms like Fascism were completely omitted from Google's dictionary tool last year after the Daily Caller questioned the definition that Google supplied.

Perhaps even more disturbing, Google has now integrated a feedback tool to report “wrong and offensive” definitions; quite possibly modifying or altering definitions on a day-to-day basis in most extreme cases.

Google currently dominates the search industry. Coupling search with a dictionary and thesaurus in effect makes Google (and the semi-anonymous voting body that supplies feedback on word acceptance) the principle arbiters of English, Spanish and a multitude of other human languages!

We must question whether it’s reasonable and prudent to allow companies like Google and non-profits like Wikimedia such enormous sway over the literacy and education of the American public! It seems to us that leverage these monoliths have over our society could in-fact fuel Fascism; very word Google omitted from their dictionary back in 2017!


THIS IS A NO-BRAINER
Clearly, the "Pocket Library" we’ve discussed here is vital to our national interests. In-fact, you could say that it’s a national treasure of sorts: Young and old men and women of varying backgrounds and ethnic persuasions scour their "Pocket Libraries" daily seeking to educate themselves, better their lives and expand their horizons.

When it comes to the tools and resources in our "Pocket Library" we need to ensure there's a level playing field.  We must ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information available to the public, preserve our national heritage and cultivate advancements that strengthen our society.

So, why not:
  1. Nationalize some of the tools and materials that comprise our aggregate Pocket Library?
  2. Create a repository under one branch of the federal government, where the library's tools and resources can be effectively curated, expanded and protected?

For the reasons we've described, both these ideas make clear sense to us.
​
CONCLUSIONS​
There’s little doubt that it’s time for a complete re-tooling of the Department of Education under Betsy DuVos. Again, we believe that digital reference tools like search engines and encyclopedias are key strategic resources and therefore should be considered public resources.

​Google recently removed their motto “Don’t Be Evil” from their employees’ code of conduct. Given, their dominance of search and the vital role Google plays in educational research today, this should be very disconcerting to anyone who believes in the American way of life. Simply put, it's a dangerous concentration of power.
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Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's socialist ideals are in-fact Utopian fantasies. They're a means to an apocalyptic end for American free enterprise, free speech and free expression. We’re not proposing an end to the free market in the case we've presented. Instead, we’re talking about centralizing a core set of vital public services; just like the United States postal service does for mail and package delivery. Not the whole enchilada mind you; just the meaty part of it.

We also argue that setting up such a service will lead to a much fairer competitive environment and open the door for a wide array of entrepreneurial business ventures within the affected industry categories. You only need look at the success of shipping companies like Federal Express, UPS and DHL to realize that opportunity will eventually open up in this space if the federal government steps in and asserts a degree of authority.

Jesus, I hope more Americans soon realize the strategic importance of the research tools that comprise our aggregate "Pocket Library" and demand immediate action from our lawmakers. ​Otherwise, we’re headed toward a world where George Orwell’s "Doublespeak" becomes a real possibility.


​
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Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting
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Thoughts On The Kavanaugh Hearings, Due Process, The Court Of Public Opinion, and What It All Means For America

10/8/2018

2 Comments

 
Protestors Abandon Due Process Under The Notion That All Claims of Sexual Assult Should Be Believed Without Question



​"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
---George Santayana (American Philosopher 1906) 


So far, 2018 has been a very busy and productive year for our consulting firm. So much so, that we decided to put our blog articles on hiatus while we focused our attention on our clientele's priorities.  We’ve also gone dark on our social media pages for much the same reason.

However, this past Saturday a client of ours posted a statement on his personal Facebook page which I happened to catch.  His statement related to the allegations of sexual assault made against Supreme Court Justice Brett during his confirmation hearings.  Frankly, the sentiments our client chose to share disturbed me greatly. So much so, that I felt they warranted a response.

Sadly, much of social media has become a thought ghetto in recent years.  Rational debates and logical discussions have largely been silenced and replaced with emotional outbursts by angry mobs.  Their comments are largely rooted in animus and in fear; and are oftentimes agenda driven. Consequently, I decided to write a personal letter to him expressing my concerns instead of posting my thoughts to his feed or sending him an instant message.

As I said, our client’s statements on this matter were deeply disconcerting on many levels. The responses he received troubled me even more. As a result, I've chosen to share my response letter publicly. His original comment is included near the opening of my very lengthy response which follows below:
​

​OUR LETTER IN RESPONSE TO THE KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION HEARINGS AND THE QUESTION OF DUE PROCESS
Dear (Name Withheld),
​
Yesterday I sat down to finish the content for your website. I logged in to Facebook to check my feed before I began. The very first post in my feed was from you and it related to the Kavanaugh hearings. It read:
"I always believe the women! Always! To all women everywhere...I'm in awe of you [sic] courage and restraint for not burning it all down right fuckin' now! Today marks a dark day in the history of our country but I know a change is coming! And you can count on me to support you."
Your first statement, “I always believe women! Always!” really struck me sideways. It seems to run contradictory to the FB post by Dan Rather that you shared today which discusses both the “Rule of Law” and evidence “Based on Fact”. It is also counter-intuitive to other principles that Rather remarked on in his post. Specifically, the principles of Justice and Equality. In short, It’s an absolutist's statement.

Knowing you personally, I don’t believe that you made this statement wittingly. Why? Because absolutists are bullies. They ignore objective truths and are oftentimes willing to disregard the rule of law. They also rely on subjective facts to justify their opinions and render judgement. In other words, their end goals always justify their means - even to the extreme.

The media and news outlets that chose to convict Justice Kavanaugh in the court of public opinion are nothing more than propaganda outlets. If you didn't watch the full body of the Congressional hearings and if you haven't read the entire body of written evidence submitted during the hearings, then your judgement has likely been colored by propaganda.

No rational person would argue that a victim of any heinous felony does not deserve to have their voice heard by the legal authorities that serve to protect the rights, liberties and freedoms guaranteed to all of us under the Constitution and our Bill of Rights. That said, the accused also deserves the presumption of innocence before being proven guilty in a court of law. The rights of the accuser do not outweigh the rights of the accused; no matter how egregious the claims of the accuser may be.

The fact of the matter is that sometimes people are falsely or wrongly accused of crimes they did not commit. In some cases, claims are brought forward by accusers with ulterior motives. Other times, there are cases of mistaken identity. Also, there are proven examples of displacement and transference: cases where an accuser unconsciously redirects emotional trauma from one person to another.

Claiming that you “Always believe the women! Always!” is in fact prejudicial. It suggests that you hold animus toward other people based on their immutable characteristics. Specifically, in this case, a person’s birth sex. Given that we live at a time in our nation where our most basic founding principle, “All Men Are Created Equal” now extends to every single person (regardless of their race, creed, color, sex, handicap or national origin), I found your moral absolutism very disconcerting. I also found your comments elitist and dangerously extreme.

Absolutists fuel extremism, and extremism propels zealotry. Zealotry gives rise to authoritarians who enable totalitarian regimes
. There are indisputable examples of this throughout world history, most notably throughout Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries. I don’t know if your aware of this, but my mother emigrated from Latvia to America with her parents and her sister in the 1950's. I chose to study the European socialist/communist/fascist phenomenon at Princeton largely due to first-hand accounts of the atrocities that were committed within these regimes, told to me by family members and a close knit community of Latvian, Russian, German and Polish survivors with whom they associated.

Most Americans are ignorant of (or choose to ignore) the fact that some of the totalitarian regimes that rose to power in Europe during the 1900's did so through democratic processes. The leaders of those movements preyed upon animus, fear and prejudice to sow societal division. If you examine the facts closely, there are eerie parallels between the grievances over racial, gender and income disparity that we’re witnessing in America today from the far-left and the demagoguery espoused by the leaders of Europe’s 20th century totalitarian movements during their nascency.

Statements like the one you made only serve to further our societal division. They do not heal our wounds. Our nation may not be a perfect representation of the ideal society outlined within the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Nevertheless, abandoning basic core principles like Due Process will only produce an extreme dystopia in the end. Consequently, I’m left to question the type of “change” you alluded to in your post? Also, pertaining to the fate of our nation, what good can you possibly envision if the rights of one immutable subset of our population supersede the rights of others?

I am not disputing that very real inequities still exist within our society today. That said, our nation continues to make enormous strides from generation to generation in advancing equality of opportunity. Therefore, I have to ask you: are you advocating for "equality of outcome" - an arbitrary measure which (by consequence) imposes substantial restrictions on our individual liberties and ultimately suppresses the creativity, freedom, innovation and prosperity of all but the very top-echelon?

If so, I can assure you that you will wake one day and find that you live in a society that has abandoned democratic principles all together for dictatorial rule, or rule by an unelected collectivist elite. If that ever happens, Martin Luther King’s dream for America will have been completely extinguished.

​For the record, I don’t really care whether you believe Kavanaugh or Ford. For what it's worth, I watched most of the live testimony myself and have also taken time to read a well-rounded body of media reports from reporters and pundits on both sides of the aisle who covered the hearings. Having done so, it is my perspective that the entire confirmation process was a national disgrace. I also believe that there have been deliberate and calculated attempts by radical elements within our society to obfuscate the facts of this case in hopes of furthering societal division and undermining the public’s trust in our judicial system.

Having said all this, I ask that you pause to reconsider your statement. If it was an emotional response made in a moment of anger and frustration, please set the record straight on your beliefs. 

Respectfully,
Erik
​

THE INEVITABLY DIRE CONSEQUENCES IF WE DEMOCRATICALLY FORGO OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
I have yet to receive a response to my letter from our client. That said, I am hopeful that he will take the time to reflect on my arguments, recognize the extreme nature of his original statement and recant his position.  That said, we are witnessing a rapid spread of absolutist rhetoric within our society today. It is a very real danger to anyone who disagrees with agenda-driven propaganda based on subjective truths and partial facts. That's why I felt compelled to come forward and speak out on this matter.

Radical leftist ideologues repeatedly ignore objective truths in order to push forward agendas premised on "equality of outcome". They fail to grasp the fundamentals of Natural Law. Additionally, they willfully or blissfully ignore the repeated failures of Marxist and Socialist ideology all throughout history.  The fact of the matter is that "equality of outcome" is an impossible Utopian ideal. Humans are inherently flawed; and there are individuals among us who crave absolute and unlimited power over others. There always have been and always will be such individuals. All throughout history, they have risen within socialist regimes to impose authoritarian or totalitarian forms of rule. 

Based on the circus we have witnessed on Capitol Hill in recent days, my hope is that more and more Americans are waking up to the fact that leftist rhetoric is becoming increasingly radical in our society. It's no wonder this is occurring when you take into account that authoritarian extremists permeate our educational institutions and our media outlets. In fact, journalistic standards have been all but been abandoned by a majority of prominent American media outlets that lean left of center. 

To loosely paraphrase the Santayana quote I cited above: we will one day find ourselves in shackles if we forget the aggregate lessons world history teaches. Make no mistake, sowing distrust in our judicial system and chipping away at our Constitutional protections are but a means to an end. Evil in fact exists. There are individuals walking the planet today who would like nothing more than than to see an erosion of America's founding principles and the complete destruction of our Constitutional Republic.  Doing so would open the gates for tyranny, injustice and oppression around the world.
​
CONCLUSIONS
​
No matter how righteous they believe their causes to be, the social justice "warriors" that disrupt our democratic establishments with protests, harass public officials in their private lives and riot in the streets, are mere pawns in a much greater and dangerous game. Ultimately, they serve the vile interests of global power brokers who will gladly discard them when it serves their interests. You only need to look back at  Germany's Night of Long Knives that took place in 1934 to understand that.

The Washington Post has recently adopted the slogan "Democracy Dies In Darkness" to promote their newspaper. While their slogan rings true, it's also true that our Constitutional Republic will be murdered in
Ronald Reagan Quote If Fascism Ever Comes to America It Will Be In the Name of Liberalism Turning Point USA
the shadows of ignorance if more Americans who believe in MLK's Dream don't soon wake up to the fact that we are forgetting a fundamental chapter of world history. Indeed, we are starting to repeat mistakes that led to the the death of countless millions during the political upheavals of the 20th century. May God help us all.


​NOTES
For anyone interested:
  • A complete archive of Justice Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings is available for view fee of charge on the RealClearPolitics website.
  • The complete list of written questions submitted by Justice Kavanaugh to the Senate Judiciary Committee is  available Here.
  • The documents submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee by Christine Blasey-Ford's attorneys can be found Here. 

​Author: Erik Gagnon - Managing Partner, Chi Rho Consulting
2 Comments

How to Build an Effective Demand Generation Program in 2018

1/2/2018

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Many C-Level executives associate Demand Generation with technology solutions and/or digital content programs. While both are crucial components, it's important to remember that effective Demand Generation is a complete organizational discipline. It's been our experience that organizations that avoid or ignore one or more of Demand Generation's strategic pillars often doom their programs to failure.

Our 2018 white paper The 4 Strategic Pillars of Effective Demand Generation
 examines the discipline from a strategic standpoint. We look at the key factors which typically separate effective Demand Generation programs from their ineffective counterparts.  We also address the foundations of an effective Demand Generation strategy and offer some tactical recommendations within each of the four strategic pillars:
  • Process
  • People
  • Content
  • Analytics

Over the years, we've helped a number of startups and expansion stage companies establish successful Demand Generation programs based upon the tenants we outline in this white paper.  We've also helped a handful of established companies retool their marketing and sales operations, integrate predictive analytics into their programs and refine their touch point communications strategies based on these principles we highlight. 

The white paper includes an Executive Summary with key findings as well as our conclusions for companies looking to adopt Demand Generation strategies or optimize their current Demand Gen activities.  Click on the picture below to download the white paper now:
The 4 Pillars of Effective Demand Generation 2018 Whitepaper Cover Photo
DOWNLOAD NOW!
If you're seeking to establish a Demand Generation program for your company in 2018, or if your organization didn't produce the results you projected for your Demand Gen campaigns last year, Chi Rho Consulting can help! There's no cost for an initial consultation and we typically structure performance-based fee arrangements with our clients.
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