Sundog

SUNDOG SPOTLIGHT: BRANDON

dani.krolak@sundog.net (Dani Krolak) — 2014-07-22T21:19:36+00:00

This ‘Dogger may have been an integral part of bringing TEDx to Minot, but around the office he’s our lifeline to all things IT. Here’s the guy you all want on your side: Brandon Cuddigan.

Position at Sundog:
My position here at Sundog is the Associate Network Manager. I’ll be helping out with any desktop and network related issues, as well as anything else that needs my attention.

Work experience:
I have around 2 ½ years of experience, beginning at a small, 3-person IT firm doing contract work, getting my hands into many different programs and technologies. This brought me into an IT Analyst role at Hess Corporation for a 3-month Windows Migration project. Soon after this was done, I made the decision to move to Fargo, accepted a position at Microsoft as a Support Engineer for SharePoint, and then eventually found out about this current position.

#1 Book You Recommend:
Since I can’t make up my mind, I’d have to say either ‘The Dresden Files’ by Jim Butcher, or ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’ by Scott Lynch.

Industry Trend You’re Most Interested In:
Autonomous cars – I’m excited to see the changes that these will bring once they are commercially viable.

Currently Obsessing Over:
Warhammer 40k – Be it the tabletop game, or sitting down for some good ol’ pen and paper adventures, I’ve gotten addicted to it since moving to Fargo. Unfortunately, I’m sure my wallet hates me now that I’m getting into the tabletop portion of it.

How do you get inspired:
I love watching TED talks. There’s a talk out there for almost anything you want to hear more about, and it’s a fantastic platform to learn from.

Dream vacation spot:
Norway for the sights and Japan for the culture

Song You’re Listening to on Repeat:
The Veldt by Deadmau5

Last concert you went to:
Justin Timberlake – one of the best I’ve been to.

And, because sharing is caring, you’ll leave our readers with…
RadioLab is one of the best podcasts I’ve come across.

When Retail Emails Go Awry: A Collection of Real Examples

susanna.oliver@sundoginteractive.com (Susanna Oliver) — 2014-07-17T15:52:55+00:00

Typos, misspellings, missing or incorrect links, poor punctuation, unintended verbiage interpretations, and missing alt text are all ways emails can go awry. Here are some examples that have landed in my inbox.

Zenfolio

The content writer and developer were having a bad day when this email got out. The interjection “my” is missing a comma and the “[link to upgrade]” placeholder was overlooked. Developers can become content blind in their attention to white space, font color, and layout, but a fresh set of eyes would have caught these mistakes.
Moral: QA before a customer does.

ShirtSpace

Not only is one of the image placeholders missing in this email, it also lacks explanatory alt text. It’s pretty easy to guess that the three images at the bottom are social media icons, but which ones? Most people would assume Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But ShirtSpace got creative. It’s Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Moral: Add alt text to social media icons even if it’s just the first letter such as “F” for Facebook. Users don’t like the unknown.

Ryonet

This retailer uses a header called “new-header-2.jpg.” Not a very motivating headline for a marketing email. I’m not reaching into my wallet yet.
Moral: Make sure that the file name doesn’t end up being your alt text.

Final moral of the stories: If you mess up, it’s not the end of the world. In fact, if you look hard enough, you could probably find something in this blog post to critique. As critically as I have reviewed these particular emails, I have nevertheless dealt extensively with several of these companies. A mistake here and there didn’t shake my trust or break my faith in their services or products. Professional presentation is always a plus, but sooner or later something will sneak out.

By analyzing the mistakes of other emails, we can avoid stepping in the same potholes.

SUNDOG SPOTLIGHT: JEN

dani.krolak@sundog.net (Dani Krolak) — 2014-07-01T16:29:39+00:00

Growing up on a dairy farm, she started milking cows at the age of 5. Now, this lovely lady is taking it to the big city to do some even bigger things for the Sundog brand. Meet the latest (and maybe even the sweetest) member of the Marketing Strategy Team: Jen Thompson.

Position at Sundog:
Internal Writer - Crafting words to help share the power, passion, purpose and playfulness of the Sundog brand.

Work experience:
I’ve spent the past 11 years with Tastefully Simple, working as a Senior Marketing Writer.

Favorite thing about being a ‘Dogger:
I’m excited to work with people who are so passionate about creativity and technology.

First impression of Sundog:
Smart, progressive, fun, empowering

Best spot inside Sundog’s space:
The spot right in front of the Starbucks machine :)

Last concert you went to:
Brandi Carlile

Go-to beverage:
Black coffee or Cherry Coke

Celebrity Crush:
James McAvoy (He’s Scottish AND one of the X-men to boot.)

Tell us about your family:
My husband, Matt, is a graphic designer. We have two little boys: Connor (4) and Caden (almost 2). We also have a very fuzzy, lazy chow chow named Lucy (5 ... or, you know, 35 in dog years).

Dream vacation spot:
Scotland (Hopefully James McAvoy will be there.)

Thing you collect:
Antique typewriters

Weirdest thing at your desk:
Red Swingline stapler (after 7 cube moves at my prior job)

Industry trend you’re most interested in:
The way social media has revolutionized customer/business relationships

Thing that makes you cringe:
Monkeys

And, because sharing is caring, you’ll leave our readers with…
Don’t be afraid to approach something from a completely different angle or perspective. You just might discover a beautiful view.

We’re All Nerds, And It Will Save Your Marketing

lynlee.espeseth@sundoginteractive.com (Lynlee Espeseth) — 2014-07-01T04:04:47+00:00

When you think of a nerd, you might think of someone who wins spelling bees or math tournaments, or goes to comic book conventions. The truth is, we’re all nerds, and when you can tap into someone’s inner nerd your marketing can succeed.

Being a nerd just means that you love something, that you love it enough to seek out all the information you can about it. You might be a nerd for the NFL Draft, for fixing cars, for managing a company, for cycling, for sewing. When you love something enough, you want to seek out others like you and create a community of nerds sharing all the information there is to find about your given topic.

No matter what you business does, somewhere our there is a nerd for you. A nerd for your technology, the business you support, the product you sell. It doesn’t matter if you have a cool business or a boring one, one whose fans are everywhere or whose fans are hard to find. Someone, somewhere, is a nerd for what you’ve got, and they are just waiting to learn more and find other nerds like them.

When you know your nerds exist you can dig in and have fun creating the marketing material they are desperate to have. From blogs to online communities to in-person events, social networks to specialized forums, there is a place for your people.

As nerds, we don’t have to worry about getting stuffed in a locker or picked last for kickball anymore, we just get to enjoy our passions. As a marketer find your nerds, support them, and use them to create a passionate following for you business that anyone would be lucky to be a part of.

Interactive Store Front Displays

shawn.tennyson@sundog.net (Shawn Tennyson) — 2014-07-01T01:02:14+00:00

Touch screen-enabled digital signage has allowed the creation of truly remarkable, interactive storefront displays that engage the customer like never before. Some of the truly innovative examples are shown below:

Blue Moon Brewing Company
Located on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, the interactive store front display for Blue Moon Brewing Company allowed passersby the ability to “Create Your Own Masterpiece.” The touch screen display, created by Pearl Media and Kinetic Worldwide, featured a palette of colors and images to create artwork in your own unique way, reinforcing the “Artfully Crafted” brand message. The entries could then be submitted via email for sharing across social media channels.

The video below is from a similar installation in 2013 in Chicago’s Old Town and Wicker Park neighborhoods.

Adidas NEO
TBWA/Helsinki created the interactive storefront for the Adidas NEO label in Nürnberg, Finland. Customers could direct the interactive model to try on different clothing in the NEO teen fashion line, which could then be purchased via their smartphones.

Nike
Created by ...,staat creative agency for Nike at the Selfridges & Co. stores in England during the Olympics. Eight different displays were created that allowed customers to interact with new Nike products.

How to Create Consistent Text Spacing in HTML Emails

susanna.oliver@sundoginteractive.com (Susanna Oliver) — 2014-06-30T15:46:23+00:00

Achieving consistent white space across some thirty-odd email clients, screen sizes, and versions can be tricky. In fact, let’s face it: it’s impossible. We’re up against monumental odds: inconsistent standards (or rather, lack thereof) across email clients, old versions, different browser renderings of web mail, multitudes of screen sizes, and then all of that compounded by mobile. But that doesn’t stop us from coming mighty close to perfection. So close, in fact, that no one but the critical eye of the developer would notice. And that’s all we need.

The traditional method for white space

Traditionally, most of the inline CSS is done on paragraph or heading tags to add spacing (either through padding or margin).

CODE:

<p style=“padding:10px; margin:10px; color:#333; font-size:14px;”>Here is some text - 1st line</p>

<p style=“padding:10px; margin:10px; color:#333; font-size:14px;”>Here is some text - 2nd line</p>

In this example, both padding and margin are used as a compromise because some email clients apply only padding and some only margin, and some apply both. So, using this method, we would get quite a variety of spacing variations. While this works in that it keeps paragraphs from butting into each other, it doesn’t achieve consistent white space in all email clients. And consistency is the goal since we don’t know which client the recipient will use to view the email.

A better method for white space

Instead of putting the vertical spacing on the paragraph or heading tag, add the spacing to the containing element. In most cases, this would be the td tag. Skip the semantic elements such as a paragraph or heading tag (this leads to inconsistent default spacing across clients), and use break tags for vertical spacing. Not only does this produce more consistent results, the code also becomes less cluttered by eliminating duplicated CSS.

CODE: 

<td style=“color:#333; font-size:14px;”>

Here is some text - 1st line

<br><br>

Here is some text - 2nd line

</td>

This method has one drawback: we have no control over how much space is added since it defaults to the standard line spacing. For traditional paragraph spacing, though, it’s about right.

If you need multiple sizes of text (such as a heading) within a td element, wrap a span or div tag around the text and add a larger font size.

You may find that you need the original method in combination with this method for some things where you can compromise a little bit on consistency.

Five Content Strategy Reads You Shouldn’t Miss

dean.froslie@sundog.net (Dean Froslie) — 2014-06-30T03:20:20+00:00

Every day brings great reads in the content strategy and content marketing worlds. The past few weeks have been especially chock-full of great stuff. Here are five of my favorites.

Content and Design Are Inseparable Work Partners (User Interface Engineering)
Why you should read it: Using several examples from user studies, Jared Spool demonstrates why separating content and design functions within an organization inevitably leads to inferior experiences.
In their words: “We need to shift our definition of content to be what the user needs right now. It has nothing to do with how it’s produced or where it lives on the server. If the user needs it, it’s content.”

Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird (Moz Blog)
Why you should read it: A lengthy-but-helpful overview of recent algorithm changes and what they mean for content creators. It’s accessible yet detailed.
In their words: “It is hopefully a good reference that you can point your clients to if you want to explain an algorithm change and not overwhelm them with technical details about 301s, canonicals, crawl errors, and other confusing SEO terminologies.”

Avoid Format-Based Primary Navigation (Nielsen Norman Group)
Why you should read it: NN/g provides a well-supported case for why format-based approaches (such as “Videos”) are ineffective as primary navigation.
In their words: “Users interested in a specific topic usually don’t care in what format the information will be delivered to them; they are focused solely on finding answers that will address the question they had in mind. For this reason, for sites where the majority of the tasks are topic driven, format-based navigation does not work well at top levels of the information architecture.”

Kick Off Successful Content Marketing with a Pilot Program: 10 Steps (Content Marketing Institute)
Why you should read it: Joe Pulizzi offers a useful strategic platform for approaching your next content initiative as a pilot program.
In their words: “One senior marketer at a large manufacturing firm recently told me that their progressive content marketing approach can be credited to one thing: launching the program as a pilot (including referring to it as such).”

How to Plug the Holes in Your Content Funnel That Are Costing You Money (Copyblogger)
Why you should read it: Mike King shows how personas, journey mapping and qualitative content auditing can reveal gaps and opportunities in your content marketing plan.
In their words: “Journey mapping is an art and a science that requires identifying user needs and developing them into stages — some of which align directly with business transactional touch points, and some that can only align with content.”

A Recipe for Mass Deleting - Salesforce

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2014-06-28T16:29:03+00:00

The first option for any new piece of functionality is to head to the AppExchange to see if something is available.

In this case an app that does mass deleting can be found: https://appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N300000016YuDEAU
Here is a video I found too that talks about installing and configuring a mass delete appexchange app.

That is really great! And free! But what if you have some specific business requirements around which objects should or should not be deleted? You would need something custom built and then extend it to meet those business rules.

So what I want to lay out here are the ingredients needed to make a mass delete work. Note that this recipe will work for any mass action. Maybe you want to mass update a status field or create child objects automatically. All of those things can be done once the ingredients are in place.

Here is what we need and the order in which to add it…

1) Apex Class - MassDeleteRecords

public with sharing class MassDeleteRecords {

	private ApexPages.StandardSetController setCon;
	private string retURL = '';
	
	public MassDeleteRecords(ApexPages.StandardSetController controller) {
		setCon = controller;
		retURL = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('retURL');
	}
	
	public PageReference DoDelete(){
		set<string> setToDelete = new set<string>();
		
		for(sObject c : setCon.getSelected()){
        	    setToDelete.add(c.ID);
                }
        
                if(setToDelete.size() > 0){
        	     list<MyObject__c> objItemList = new list<MyObject__c>();
        	     objItemList = [Select ID
        				From MyObject__c
        				Where ID = :setToDelete];
        	     if(objItemList.size() > 0){
        		     delete objItemList;
        	     }
                }

               if(string.isBlank(retURL) == false){
        	   return new PageReference(retURL);
               }else{
                   //This should not get hit, but put the three digit prefix of you object here.  This prefix can be programatically discovered too with something like this:
                   /*
                   string threeDigitPrefix = '';
		   Schema.DescribeSObjectResult r;		
		   r = MyObject__c.sObjectType.getDescribe();				
		   threeDigitPrefix = r.getKeyPrefix();
                   */
        	   return new PageReference('/a0H/o');	
               }		
	}
}

Notice that we are using the StandardSetController. This object will contain all of the rows that were selected on the list view. The DoDelete() method is called from the action attribute for the ‘apex:form’ tag on the Visualforce Page. It would be nice to be able to do the DML right in the constructor, but that is something Apex does not allow us to do. This page does do a DoDelete() method, but it could just as well do a DoStatus() or a CreateChildObject() routine. There will be a collection of objects to iterate over in order to take whatever action is necessary.

2) A Unit Test
Before we create the page we should create the unit test. We should be able to test our class and know the logic is going to work before we ever tie our class to our page.

@isTest
private class MassDeleteRecordsTest {

    static testMethod void MassDeleteRecordsTest() {
        //Create
        MyObject__c pItem = new MyObject__c();
        insert pItem;
        
        list<MyObject__c> objList = [SELECT ID FROM MyObject__c Where ID = :pItem.ID];
        ApexPages.StandardSetController ssc = new ApexPages.StandardSetController(objList);
	ssc.setSelected(objList);
		
        //Invoke
        MassDeleteRecords mdr = new MassDeleteRecords(ssc);
        mdr.DoDelete();
        
        //Check
        objList = [SELECT ID FROM MyObject__c Where ID = :pItem.ID];
        system.assertEquals(objList.size(), 0);
    }
}

3) A Visualforce Page



    You should only see this page if there was an error.  The error message should be here:

Notice that there is almost nothing visual on this page. The only time this page should be displayed is when an error occurs. The ‘extensions’ attribute is pointing the needed Apex class.

4) A Custom Button
Create a new custom button on your custom object.
A) Go to your custom object
B) Go to the ‘Buttons, Links and Actions’ related list.
C) Click ‘New Button or Link’
D) Input a name and label like ‘Mass Delete’
E) Select ‘List Button’ and check the checkbox for ‘Display Checkboxes (for Multi-Record Selection)
F) Behavior select ‘Display in existing window without sidebar or header’
G) Content source select ‘Visualforce Page’
H) Content drop-down select your Visualforce Page. The only Visualforce Pages that should show up in that drop-down are those that are defined as having the standardController set to your custom object.

5) Add the Custom Button to the List View
A) Go to your custom object
B) Go to the ‘Search Layouts’ related list.
C) Click Edit next to the ‘CustomObject’ Records List View
D) Add your custom button

You should now be all set! Go to the tab for your custom object and your ‘Mass Delete’ button should be there. Select a couple of items and hit the Mass Delete button. The page should refresh and your records should be gone. These records should be in the recycle bin if you need to restore them.

The great part about these ingredients and the recipe is that it allows you to take any action that you want on multiple records. The building blocks are there to kick off the action and the records have been passed to the routine. Now all you need to do is to implement the specific business logic.

Good luck with doing your mass action customizations. Let us know at Sundog if we can help!

Salesforce Communities - Let’s Get Customizing!

terry.luschen@sundoginteractive.com (Terry Luschen) — 2014-06-27T19:16:29+00:00

As I mentioned in my last blog post Salesforce Communities is the successor to the old Portals. There was a lot of thought given to make sure that each piece of a Community could be customized to meet brand standards. Here are some examples…

1) Can I change the default header and footer in the Community?
Yes! See page 13 of the Salesforce Communities Implementation Guide in the ‘Branding Your Community’ section.
They even mention on page 34 in the ‘Adding the Global Search Box to Your Customized .Html Header’ how to add the Global Search Box back into your own customized header.

2) Can I change the default landing page for the Community?
Yes! See page 36 of the Salesforce Communities Implementation Guide in the ‘Configuring the Default Community Login Page to Use a Custom Home Page’ section.
This blog post also has some nice screen shots and sample code about this landing page customization.
This means that you are in complete control of the end-user experience in the Community. If you do not want to see the standard Community page with the tabs at the top, then you do not have to see it.

3) Can I use a Site or Site.com for my Community?
Yes! When you setup a Community you choose to either use a Site within Salesforce Sites or Site.com. With Sites you get the ‘out-of-the-box’ functionality of the tabs that can be added/removed with point-n-click configuration. But you also have with Sites the power to create custom Visualforce pages and include them. You can also use Site.com for your Community which is a Content Management System ( CMS ) that does not rely on Visualforce.

4) In Apex will I know what Community the user is logged into?
Yes! Check out the Apex Network class that was added with Communities. It has routines like getNetworkId() to return the user’s current community. It also has routines like communitiesLanding() and forwardToAuthPage() to help control landing and login pages respectively.

There is so much to explore when customizing the Community experience in Salesforce. But the best part is that there is so much out-of-the-box without even customizing it.

Please let us know at Sundog if we can help you with building out a Community for your customers.

How to build relationships through social

alyssa.greve@sundoginteractive.com (Alyssa Greve) — 2014-06-27T15:29:32+00:00

We want to see how companies foster good communication and humanize the brand through social media. Throughout this blog post, we will talk about specific social tricks for building relationships. Keep in mind, transparency and authenticity are two of this industry’s biggest factors and proper execution on behalf of your brand is crucial.

As you build relationships online, it’s important to be relevant. If the content doesn’t relate to the target audience, it will not make a direct impact on their relationship. It’s important to recognize what your audience needs and wants, as this should tailor your content strategy. However, sometimes your audience doesn’t know what they want until they have it. Like Steve Jobs said: “Some people say, ‘Give the customers what they want.’ But that’s not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they’re going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, ‘If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, “A faster horse!”’ People don’t know what they want until you show it to them. That’s why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”

Build two-way conversations. When your highest influencers tweet about something interesting and ties back to your brand, respond to that person, retweet it if it makes sense with your content strategy. As a company shows value of their community, they are more likely to build trust. As a ground rule, make sure to you are engaging on the right platform with the right etiquette of the tools you use. If used wrong, it could decrease the relationship value with that individual.

Be responsive. As some brands have five approval processes prior to launching material, this can drown out response time and reflect poorly on your brand in this space. We recommend working with teams to come up with a Response Guideline to outline best practices for common messages and customer service to streamline a process in enabling your company to be more responsive and engage earlier in the conversation.

One example is how Bobcat Company engages with their audience on their Facebook page. They do a great job responding in a considerable time-framewhile humanizing the brand. This Fan posted a question to their page asking about the contest going on and how to enter. See how Bobcat responds. You can see how another person liked the post as well as answering the question publicly allowed another fan to benefit.

One great way to build relationships through Twitter is creating a follower strategy. By following other people that share valuable information for you, you can begin to comment and engage with those on the items they are sharing. It’s also a common tactic to look at whom that person is following as they may find you some more influencers in your industry.

This tactic rolls over to Instagram as well. On Instagram, brands must humanize themselves through imagery and begin to build two-way conversations rather than focus all about the company. The goal is to create loyal customers that are devoted to a brand. Try using one or two hashtags in your description, but any more can look self-promotional.

As you nurture the relationships in each profile, it’s important to learn from what you’re sharing and how you’re engaging to adjust your strategy. It something doesn’t resonate with the audience, social is a platform that can adjust as needed.