HTML5 and CSS3

Web development and I have a love hate relationship. The part I love is that it is constantly evolving, the part I hate is that it’s constantly evolving, just when I have a grasp on what I’m doing, they add new features.

I will say though that I am like a kid in a candy store about the latest buzz in web land: HTML5 and CSS3. Apple has put together a little showcase of what is possible with these new and improved languages, and you can go look at it here: http://www.apple.com/html5 (Please note that only Safari and Chrome are currently HTML5 friendly browsers, iPhone users, you’re in luck, your phone runs Safari)

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Marizka, the web has been able to do video, text drop shadows, rounded corners and photo galleries for years now.” Yes it has indeed, but let me walk you through the process of say, a drop shadow on text the old way.

1. Designer creates a Photoshop file with a drop shadow effect on the text.
2. I slice the Photoshop file and save the text as a transparent png
3. I program the site with said text image in it.
4. There’s a copy change
5. Designer edits the Photoshop file.
6. I re-slice the Photoshop file and upload the new image to the web.
7. There’s a change in the font color
8. The designer…

You get the drift. And that’s just for one line of text with a drop shadow!

With the new HTML5 and CSS, I will be able to manipulate drop shadows right in the code. So copy changes? No problem, I do them right in the code. Change the color of the drop shadow? Piece of cake, I make one color change in my stylesheet and it affects the entire site. And best of all, seeing that all these changes are code based, we will be drastically reducing the number of graphics used to create a site, and in turn, drastically increase the speed at which sites load in browsers.

The W3C, the governing entity of the internet and all web standards, plan to have HTML5 complete by the end of this year and then all web browsers will start implementing it. So I urge you, when your browser prompts you for an update, to run it. It will be worth it!

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, Circle of Sisterhood is positioning itself as the avenue for sorority women to work together to make education possible for women around the world. Below are some of the guerrilla marketing tactics they used to launch this initiative.

Circle of Sisterhood chose the AFA annual meeting as the forum to launch their efforts. Because the conference attendees are professionals who work for colleges, universities, and inter/national fraternities or sororities and who serve in advisor roles to members of Fraternities and Sororities the audience was the ideal audience to engage as advocates volunteers and donors for the organization. Unlike students, who remain on a campus community for only a few years, advisors are the continuity. Circle of Sisterhood utilized guerrilla marketing tactics to encourage attendees to visit their booth in the conference’s exhibit hall and to attend the kick off event, hosted toward the end of the annual meeting.

• Volunteers carried orange tote bags so conference attendees easily identified them.
• Volunteers wore a large button that featured a number (updated daily with a dry erase maker) that was a talking point. For example, 6.7. 6.7% of the world’s population has a college degree, compared to 100% of the conference attendees. It gave volunteers the opportunity to talk about the privilege of education, something this audience might typically take for granted.
• They had a giveaway contest for the book, Half the Sky. Anyone who gave a business card was entered to win the book that was the impetus for the founding of the organization. The giveaway had multiple purposes; encouraging people to stop at the booth to enter the drawing, encouraging them to attend the kick off event to see if they won, encouraging attendees to read the book (which could lead to a desire to be involved) and helping the organization acquire the names of potential volunteers, advocates and donors for their mailing list.
• Though the kick off event was listed in the program as invite only (making it seem exclusive) volunteers had round invitations (playing on the circle theme) that were distributed to individuals that they met during the conference.  The invitation featured part of a story from the book. The recipient of the invitation was invited to the kick off event to hear the remainder of the story.

These are just a few examples of tactics used by Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. To see more examples of guerilla marketing visit http://www.creativeguerrillamarketing.com/

Could your business or organization benefit from guerilla marketing tactics? We can help you formulate a plan.

Last week my travels took me to Phoenix, Arizona and the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors (AFA) Annual Meeting for the launch party for the newly established Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. As a volunteer for Circle of Sisterhood I offer my marketing and fundraising expertise (and a little of my elbow grease too). In these trying economic times, where donors are increasingly difficult to acquire, one might think it is less than ideal to establish a new non-profit organization. But knowing how to position your organization with your target audience has more to do with your success than the economy. It also means using the resources you have wisely.

Guerrilla marketing is all about creating buzz and using unconventional marketing tactics. The father of guerrilla marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson, defines it as “achieving conventional goals, such as profits and joy, with unconventional methods, such as investing energy instead of money.” Levinson and co-authors Chris Forbes, and Frank Adkins wrote the book Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits and in it they offer scores of marketing ideas that are low cost or completely free. For a small business or non-profit organization guerrilla marketing can be useful tactic. But as with all marketing it must be authentic to your organization, relevant to your target audience, and both strategic and meaningful. Circle of Sisterhood took advantage of guerrilla marketing tactics to achieve all of the above.

With a solid marketing plan and committed volunteers, Circle of Sisterhood is positioning itself as the avenue for sorority women to work together to make education possible for women around the world. The organization’s founder, Ginny Carroll, had an ah-ha moment after reading the book, Half the Sky, which details the oppression of women throughout the world. In the marketing materials prepared by the organization they remind their target audience, sorority women, that in the late 1800s, American women stood together for the right to go to college. The sorority movement began as a system to support women in their academic efforts. Now, 140 years later, there are more than 4 million sorority women. More important, they are educated women. By joining together, they have an opportunity to continue the legacy of their Founders’ by helping less fortunate girls and women go to school around the world.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a list of the guerrilla marketing tactics used by Circle of Sisterhood.