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The Actors Fund Selects Drupal over Plone ...

The Actors Fund – a human services organization in New York and LA serving the entertainment industry – has engaged OHO Interactive to migrate their existing website from Plone CMS to Acquia Drupal. The site will also integrate with the Blackbaud suite of products including Raiser's Edge, Patron's Edge, and Patron's Edge online.

As part of the engagement, OHO is developing an enhanced resource database and working with the management team to overhaul the homepage to better represent the organization and balance the needs of the membership, services, and development departments.

Drupal will provide a more flexible platform for:

  • updating and dismenating content
  • improve capability for adding video to the site
  • provide a stronger platform for the development of custom features
  • enhancing cross-site promotion of content such as calendars and events
  • better content tagging

The new site is slated to launch later this summer.

Jason Smith
Jun 30, 2010
Blackbaud, Technology, Web 2.0, Website
Multi-Site Implementations: Drupal Domain Access Module

Update! Meet up with OHO at DrupalCon 2010 this week!

Many enterprise IT organizations are looking to manage a wide range of web properties with a single content management instance. Drupal provides three options for multi-site management. One of the better options is the Domain Access Module.

Benefits of the Drupal Domain Access Module

  • Maintain multiple Drupal sites with one install of Drupal on one server
  • Using Domain Access, there is one master web site and any number of sub-site domains.
  • Each sub-site domain can have its own navigation structure and visual design or it can inherit the navigation structure and the visual design from the master.
  • Content can be shared (or affiliated) from the master with all or some of the subdomains. This allows content editors to edit content on the master and automatically push it out to the sub-sites.
  • Not all of the sub-sites need to share the content. Each sub-site can be customized to use (or not) content from the master.
  • Content management permissions to edit or to publish content can be restricted so that users are allowed to edit content on just a sub-site.

Examples of the Drupal Domain Access Module

  • Content editors and writers can edit master content in one centralized location and have this populate across some or all of the sub-sites
  • Allows for easy updating of contact information or footer navigation
  • Financial services and banking organizations can update disclaimer information easily
  • Allows a brand to maintain a presence in its sub-brands through the use of persistent top header or other design element.
  • Organizations can maintain one calendar of events and push these events to sub-site domains. On the sub-site domain, the calendar could either show all events or just events related to this sub-site domain.

Practical Applications of the Drupal Domain Access Module

Colleges and universities can deploy a master Drupal instance and then use the Domain Access module to create sub-site domains for departments or programs allowing all sites to have integrated brand and marketing messages. With the distributed permissions, each department has access to editing and maintaining its departmental content.

Want to learn more?

Jason Smith
Mar 12, 2010
Drupal, University Websites, Website
YouTube Videos for College Admissions

Tufts University in Boston, MA became the first selective university in the US to encourage prospective students to submit videos via YouTube as part of the admissions process.

According to report on Boston.com of the 15,436 applicants to Tufts this year, more than 6 percent submitted a video.

The videos provide an opportunity for students to personalize their admissions applications and highlight their unique abilities. While many schools have always encouraged supplemental material this is the first open call for YouTube videos.

Learn more about academic recruitment and social media.

Watch a selection of the videos submitted to Tufts.

Academic Recruitment 2.0

How are for-profit universities using social media, search engine optimzation, and online advertising to recruit students.

Watch the Presentation Now

Jason Smith
Feb 21, 2010
academic recruiting, Social Media, Video
Search vs Social Media

Looking to drive traffic to your site? Search engines are still dominating – make that crushing – social media sites as referers.

A recent year-over-year analysis for one client showed search engines referring 60% of all the web traffic for 2009, while social media sites – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Yelp, EventBrite – only contributed 2% of all traffic.

Search Is Becoming More – Not Less – Relevant

More over, search isn't losing ground – it is gaining ground by leaps and bounds. Google referrals for this site were up 257% in 2009 (compared to 2008). For this site, that equates to over 300,000 additional visitors.

Social Media Referrals Grow Too – Just Lots Less Impact

Now, social media showed amazing growth as well. Of the sites listed above, many contributed no traffic to the site in 2008 and started contributing in 2009. But the growth and dominance of search engines cannot be quibbled with.

Is there are place for social media? You bet, but it's not a referral engine for this business.

Jason Smith
Feb 19, 2010
Search Engine Marketing, Social Media
Add Google Maps to Your Site

We've seen an increased desire by clients to add mapping to their websites – but they usually don't ask for it that way.

Clients begin by seeking new ways to visualize their information and make it easier to sort through information. In other words, they are looking for ways to make the content more relevant to the user.

Google Maps and Professional Associations

Some examples – I sat in a meeting today with an large professional association where the executive director talked about the "fire hose" of data their current site provides. It's too much; it's not relevant. His quick solution – not a better search or filters or better information architecture – is to show people and businesses near the user.

In his mind, nearer to me = more relevant to me.

A map view of search results is the ideal way to present this information rather than a filtered list. Why? Because maps offer a visualization of information that is easy to scan – and scanning is the way we all read on a screen.

Plot Custom Data on a Google Map for Universities

Here's another example – we launched a website for Lesley University last fall. Lesley offers off-campus programs in 250 sites across the US. I knew this – but it wasn't until I saw all 250 sites plotted that I understood at glance where they offer classes.

  • I could see the clusters of regions where they work
  • I could quickly see how far I would need to drive to take a course
  • Clicking on the map pin showed me only the course available at that site

What's essential here is that the prospective student is asking a number of questions about the degree program: cost, time commitment, value, and course material. A standard text search is good for finding courses by name, but this isn't the only important decision factor. In this case a map more quickly answers other questions – how far will I have to drive? does this fit into my life?

Google Maps API and Google Maps Mash Up

The Google Maps API provides a way to plot your data on the Google Maps base. Plus you can plot third-party geo-coded information – such as transit stops – to add more value to your users. In addition, your users can add data to your maps such as polygons and lines plus the supporting meta-data.

See Examples of Google Maps Mash Ups

Jason Smith
Feb 10, 2010
Design, Drupal, Drupal modules, Google Maps
Virtual Tour a Powerful Fundraising Tool for Mass General

We've just launched a new virtual tour mapping application for the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. The virtual tour is designed for the department chief and the development office to introduce the department to prospective donors. It covers the four office locations reaching from Cambridge to Chelsea and provides a 15 minute overview of the staff and services through photos and video.

The virtual tour and introduction video were also used in conjuntion with the 75th anniversary of the department and its gala event.

Mass General Hospital Virtual Tour and Map

OHO provided start-to-finish services for the project including:

  • Concept and design
  • Design of map-base
  • All photography
  • Video production and editing

Learn more about OHO's map expertise.

Case Study about our work for Mass General Hospital.

Jason Smith
Feb 01, 2010
Design, Drupal, Maps, Video
12 Days of Twitter Begins Today!

The "12 Days of Twitter" begins today with puns and rhymes through December 25th. Find out how to join into the fun and for a chance to win a prize every day.

See the gifts! Learn how to play

#12daysoftwitter

#christmas

@ohointeractive

Jason Smith
Dec 14, 2009
Social Networking, Twitter
Announcing the 12 Days of Twitter. A Social Media Gift from OHO Interactive.

18 million people are using Twitter. If you haven’t felt the urge to start writing in 140 character snippets, OHO Interactive has come up with 12 holiday reasons to get started by Tuesday, December 14. Join up to Twitter – or login – and start following us on Twitter at OHOinteractive. You’ll find out how you can get a chance to win a 12 Days of Twitter daily prize. Visit our website to find out how to get started with Twitter and see the daily prize.

 

If you’re wondering why you might want to use Twitter for your business or organization, here’s 12 reasons that we see.

 

  1. Get feedback from your customers
  2. Have a two-way conversation
  3. Understand what people are doing with your products
  4. Listen to what people are saying
  5. Provide customer service
  6. Find your champions
  7. Socialize new ideas or products
  8. Follow cultural trends
  9. Read breaking news
  10. Run a single-click advocacy campaign
  11. Read out-of-box articles
  12. Win gifts from OHO!
Jason Smith
Dec 09, 2009
Social Networking, Twitter
UK Consumer Finance Firm Selects OHO for Social Media Campaign

MEM Consumer Finance has selected OHO Interactive to create a Facebook strategy and launch a social media campaign to reach out to their 20-35 year-old target audience in the United Kingdom.

Based on audience demographics, OHO is developing a campaign that will gather friends, publish content, and provide a new channel for MEM to engage their customers. The campaign will be promoted through MEM's existing marketing channels. The campaign will be launched by early 2010. OHO will drive the campaign, provide on-going and evolving strategy, and metrics.

Jason Smith
Dec 07, 2009
Facebook, Social Networking
World Wildlife Fund Project Highlighted in "Nature"

Our project with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to develop a mapping application for use in developing countries was highlighted by the science journal Nature.

Read the article in Nature

The site will allow users to create spatial data and records for development projects. The site will have a strong community component that will allow users to collaborate and refine the data. The site will be built using Acquia Drupal and the Google Maps API 3. It is expected to launch in late spring 2010.

Jason Smith
Dec 04, 2009
Acquia, Drupal, Web 2.0, Web Application
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