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Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Demystifying bounce rates

If you, like me, have ever ever scratched your head, dropped your jaw, or clenched your fist at that mysterious “bounce rate” figure in your site analytics, take a look at this fantastic article called “How-to: Improve Your Site’s Bounce Rate (Intro to Google Analytics Advanced Filtering” from the good people at NTEN.

This article will help you understand not only what bounce rates are, but how they are relevant to your site’s success and how you can improve them in a meaningful way.

We learned a lot and know you will too!

 

Soapbox Site Launch: GIIRS site for B Corporation

As anyone who listens to us for more than a minute or two knows, PICnet is a proud B Corporation.  B Corporation’s triple-bottom-line philosophy of people, planet, and profit resonates with us down to the ground and we polish that little Certified B Corp logo in the footer of our site each day to keep it shiny.

Given this, we were more than happy to bring B Lab on board as a client with the launch of its GIIRS site on Soapbox.  GIIRS, or Global Impact Investing Rating System, is a new effort seeking to expand on the work that B Lab has done thus far – but maybe we should let the GIIRS site itself do the explaining from there:

The impact investing industry is facilitating investments that are not only socially responsible, but which also actively create positive social and environmental impact. In order to scale the impact investing marketplace, investors require an independent third-party impact ratings product that is comparable, transparent, and easy to use.

Interested in learning more about the growing movement to identify and encourage socially responsible businesses like PICnet? Take a moment to read about the innovative work that B Lab is doing to create a new sector of the economy that harnesses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.

 

Soapbox Site Launch: Partnership for Children and Youth

It turns out, PICnet and Nonprofit Soapbox are nice and portable. Change jobs. Keep the same PICnet.

That’s exactly what Steven Wirt did when he had a change of professional scenery and a web project for his new organization he needed to find a home for.  He called us up and we were happy to dive in:

I’ve worked twice now with PICnet on projects that sit virtually at opposite ends of the web development spectrum. One project involved a large organization, American Cancer Society. The current project is for a six-person nonprofit called Partnership for Children and Youth. The first project involved the simultaneous launch of 40 microsites. The new project involves 39 fewer sites but is no less complex— the redesign, optimization and launch of our organizational website. PICnet has now delivered 41 websites on time, under budget and practically maintenance-free.

- Steven Wirt, Director, Partnership for Children and Youth

41 and counting, Steven. We’ll be happy to be there for 42 and beyond!

 

Meet Phil Penn Gwynn: Newest PICnet client, accidental techie and video blogger

We love to highlight new sites which have launched and, when possible and helpful, share a glimpse into the special features or stories that make them unique.  The latest site to go live is someorg.org.

Meet Phil Penn Gwynn, Online Communications Director / Bookkeeper / Database Administrator / Webmaster / Video Blogger in his inaugural video blog.  In this ongoing series, he’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities he faces as an accidental techie managing Someorg.org’s online presence.

Good luck with the video blogging, Phil!  We’re anxious to hear more!

For future updates throughout this week and beyond, become a fan of Someorg.org’s Facebook page, follow Phil on Twitter, or check out Someorg.org’s website.

 

New functionality empowers Renaissance

We love it when a current client reaches out to us to spruce up their site to respond to an evolving need or opportunity that has materialized since it was first launched.  We especially love it when that process can be made to put more power into their hands so their site can be more flexible in meeting their needs.

So when the good folks at the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center came to us with a challenge, we were happy to turn it into an opportunity to empower them to update their site more easily now and into the future.

ren-home-oldRenaissance’s home page had become difficult for them to manage.  Photos that fit their Flash rotating photo banner were getting harder to come by. The results of adding several were just not to their liking and it was getting tedious to manage.  They also were looking for additional ways to drive traffic to key pages on their site as their programs evolved and developed.

ren-home-newEnter Soapbox Slideshow and a little design finessing.  We were happy to work with them to add our Slideshow component that allowed them to more easily update the photos on their site as well as provided the ability to include text that gives valuable background to the photos that highlight the important work they’re doing.

In addition, inclusion of a new Business Support You Need module highlights key content on their site and allows them to update those links as new opportunities and foci arise.

Are you a current client interested in implementing Soapbox Slideshow on your site?  Looking for a little design finessing?  We’d love to hear from you!  Not a current client but intrigued by the possibilities?  Hit us up!

 

Project Manager superstar wanted in D.C.

We’re looking for a Project Manager phenom to take to the field, dribble through opposition, and score massive success for our non-profit clients.  You should be the kind of player that isn’t looking for a safe goalless draw but pushing for the full three points.

Ability to humor your Director of Client Services’ obsession with futbol – at least until July 11th – is a definite plus.

For a non-soccer related list of what the job actually requires, check out our job announcement.

NOTE: For those keeping score at home, this job was originally posted on this blog as being based in San Francisco but we juggled a bit to make D.C. home field for this new team member.

 

Soapbox 2.1.0 Released: Captions, social bookmarking, powerful Add Ons, and core updates

We’re pleased to announce the release of Soapbox 2.1.0! This release enhances Soapbox 2 sites through new caption functionality, expanded social bookmarking, three powerful Soapbox Add On services for managing events, accepting donations, and managing a job board, as well as valuable updates to the Soapbox core.

Curious for a little more info?  Cruise on over to our Help Desk to learn more!

 

Soapbox Salon – Thursday, May 27, 2010

Who doesn’t love being more successful in fundraising? For non-profits, we know how important it is to effectively reach out to your donors and potential donors to meet your fundraising goals and further your mission. How can you increase donations without markedly increasing your overhead? How can you attract and engage your donor base to become more invested in your cause? At our next Soapbox Salon, we’ll be sharing with you tips and ideas that you can use easily with your Non-Profit Soapbox site and Joomla! to help convert those donors faster and more effectively.

PICnet’s Soapbox Salon
Converting Donors Faster Using Soapbox & Joomla!

When: Thursday, May 27, 2010
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm ET
Where: PICnet’s DC Office – 1605 Connecticut Ave. 3rd Floor, Washington, DC (across the street from the Dupont Circle Metro station’s north exit)
What: You bring your questions, ideas, and lunch, and we’ll bring answers and refreshments.

Please RSVP by Wednesday, May 26 by clicking the link below and registering for the event.

Questions? Contact Julie Dennis at julie@picnet.net or by calling (202) 585-0273.

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Registration — http://bit.ly/do02mq
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Wufoo forms smarter, more flexible, still don’t take out the trash

Tired of boring old static webforms? Feeling restricted by limited confirmation emails you can send after form submissions? Sick of taking out the trash all the time? Well, the gang at Wufoo has great news for you — they’ve introduced conditional logic and branching to make their webforms smarter and more effective!  Sorry – still waiting on that trash bit, though.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Whofoo? Conditional What?” For those of you out there asking yourselves these questions, let us take a step back. Wufoo is a super easy and affordable webform solution that we’ve found works well to fit many of our clients needs – as well as our own! As they’ve put it on their FAQ page:

Wufoo is an Internet application that helps anybody build amazing online forms. When you design a form with Wufoo, it automatically builds the database, backend and scripts needed to make collecting and understanding your data easy, fast and fun.

We at PICnet are big fans of Wufoo and the great work that they do over there. For more information on why you might want to look into using Wufoo (hint: 50% discount for nonprofits) check the Tips & Tricks in our Help Desk.

Wufoo recently announced some awesome new functionality to make forms even better. With conditional logic and branching, you can now:

  1. Set the form to hide or show fields based on a user’s answer in another field. For example, you could set it to ask the user for their spouse’s name only if they’ve selected “married”.
  2. Skip entire pages if they don’t apply to a user depending on their answers. Say somebody wants to pay by check for a purchase handled through the form, well now they can skip a credit card processing page you’ve setup.
  3. Create customized confirmation emails based on responses. For example, instead of sending everybody the same “Thank You” email, you could send one message to new members, and another to renewals.

Even better, they’ve managed to make constructing the conditional rules as easy as we could have ever imagined in our wildests dreams (trust us — our dreams about webforms have been wild). Want to learn more? Check out their conditional logic blog post for more information and how-to screencasts.

Not yet using Wufoo? Unsure if it’s right for you? Check out Wufoo’s site to get the get the lowdown.

 

We’re a B Corporation!

B Corporation logo

We’ve been newly minted as a grade A, bona fide B Corporation and we couldn’t be happier with the certification. As described by the B Corporation website, “B Corporations are a new type of corporation which uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.” That’s PICnet, in a nutshell, and we’re happy to join the growing community of 250+ B Corporations dedicating themselves to more than just the bottom line. That’s exactly the kind of folks we want to be associated with and we’re proud of the company we’ll be keeping

If you want to learn more about our fellow B Corporation friends and details of what it means to be certified, check out http://www.bcorporation.net.