Kanye West is well known for his rather blunt demeanor. I’m in no way a fan of his work nor his public display of crass candor. However, when I learned of his recent rant [WARNING TO READERS: Kanye uses explicit language in his rant.] about imposters taking his name on Twitter I was shocked to actually find myself agreeing in part with his online rant. I wanted an answer to the same questions he raises, minus the foul language to which he and his commenters make their point.

Kanye’s frustration with his imposters is interesting because he takes to task the idea that not everyone on Twitter is who they claim to be. I mean, I have people following me that can improve, fix or enhance nearly every aspect of my life because they are experts. They’ve developed some snake oil solutions that make my business more profitable, make me look better and feel healthier. We’re not talking about a few of these folks but hundreds. Twitter is like a flea market for these “experts.” While Kanye doesn’t like someone claiming to be him and writing tweets as if they were him, I don’t like anyone claiming to be something they’re not or, at very least, can’t substantiate their position as a guru. See my blog post about too many Indians and not enough chiefs.

Another point that Kanye makes is one that’s often the topic of conversation among our staff here at Talstone – how the heck do so many people have time to tweet as often as they do? Kanye writes in his blog, “I’M ACTUALLY SLOW DELIVERING CONTENT BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I’M NOT AND I’M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN’T TELL THE WORLD.” (Note: Kanye likes to type in all caps). I don’t know (and really don’t care) what Kanye does in a day. However, I do believe any sort of creativity and entrepreneurial activity requires focus and dedication. Still, I see people who tweet all the time.

At Talstone, I try to maintain this blog as well as manage my staff and the general business and, quite frankly, it gets overwhelming at times. So the question is begged, how do people who are experts in their respected fields find the time to microblog every aspect of their day? Do they have their knowledge and skill sets down so well that they don’t need to spend any time with clients? Do they not have any thought processes to work through for their clients? I know what it takes for Talstone to produce a good marketing plan for our clients. We devote our best efforts to investigating and strategizing that we struggle to find time to keep our blog up-to-date with new content.

Gertrude Stein, in her book Everybody’s Autobiography, is quoted as saying, “It takes a lot of time to be a genius, you have to sit around so much doing nothing, really doing nothing.” That may be more of a tongue-in-cheek statement but I think Thomas Edison said it better when he said, “Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” On Twitter I see a lot more Gertrude’s than I do Mr. Edison’s.

If you use Twitter make sure that you are who you portray yourself to be. If you’re the real deal then consider what your tweets reflect. Are you a person of action or just a person who uses 140 characters every five minutes to waste time trying to make something out of nothing? Until next time – keep your pulse strong.

In today’s age where technology is king, a Web site is often the first chance to make a good impression. Yet more times than not I see companies, practices, and even health systems pay little to no attention to their Web site. I see content that is outdated, images that are no longer relevant, and even incorrect information, such as addresses, phone numbers, or staff personnel.

When properly created and maintained, a Web site can provide tremendous value to your patients and visitors, even beyond the information it serves. Web sites that are easy to use and intuitive to the person viewing it give the impression that your company or practice will be the same way. Web sites that are cluttered and difficult to use provide frustration to the person viewing it, leaving them with a bad feeling about your organization.

5 Usability Killers

1. Broken Links. Nothing is more frustrating than intentionally clicking on a link only to end up on an error page. Broken links to pages, images, and style sheets will kill Web site usability and increase bounce rates faster than anything else. The W3C has a free tool that validates not only links, but images, style sheets, and javascripts. While tools like this are not a “cure-all,” they do provide a good place to start.

2. Under Construction Pages. I think the rule is don’t ever, ever, ever, ever, ever take a page live that is unfinished. Or is there one more “ever”? I can’t remember. Anyway, you get the point. If a page is “under construction,” don’t allow people to it. Take the links down and take the page down until the page is finished.

If there is a very rare case where you just HAVE to take a page live that isn’t finished, put a specific date telling exactly when you will have the page up. “Coming Soon!” doesn’t help the viewer at all. How soon is soon? An hour? A day? A week? A month? Instead, “Coming Soon! Please visit us again on June 1, 2009!” tells viewers not to waste their time until June 1, and will actually create a higher return rate for that page.

3. Non-descriptive Links. Go ahead and laugh, but I’ve seen multiple sites with links titled “Information.” Information about what? Information about the company? Information about their services? Information about their prices? I could go on, but you get the idea. Be as descriptive as possible in the text of your links. “Our History” works better for a page containing the history of the company than “About Us.”

Going even further, link titles are very important to Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you want to improve your rank in search results, start by replacing link text such as “Contact Us” with “Contact Dearwood Medical Group.” Search engines relate that link with your actual practice, as opposed to “us,” which doesn’t tell them anything.

4. Missing Links (or buried pages). Making the viewers of your Web site use the back button of their browser is a big mistake. As a general rule of thumb, a viewer should be able to get to the content they want in no more than two clicks. It’s frustrating for viewers to navigate to a page only to find a completely different navigation bar. Instead, use what I call “Global Navigation” and “Local Navigation.” Global Navigation contains the links that should remain on every single page of the Web site. For example, “Home, Services, Careers, Blog, Contact Dearwood Medical Group” would all be included in Global Navigation. Local Navigation would include links relative to the global section the viewer is on.

5. Outdated or Incorrect Content. Web pages that have a blog, newsroom, Twitter feed, or any other sort of dynamic content must be updated consistently. I’d even go as far as informing viewers how often they can expect it to be updated (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) If a viewer goes to a page with dynamic content and the last time it was updated was March 2003, they will wonder if you are even still in business. If you don’t have time to update it, take it down. Don’t get me wrong, I am very much in favor of dynamic content and the value it provides to the viewers. But it isn’t worth having it on your Web site if it won’t get updated.

How friendly is your Web site? If you haven’t taken the time to examine your own Web site recently (meaning in the last 6 months or longer), now is the time to do so.

At the last count, I have a mobile phone, landline, four separate e-mail accounts, a Facebook account, a LinkedIn account, a Twitter account, and a personal blog. In my office I have four separate calendars (two print, two electronic) to keep track of my life. There should be no reason for me to miss an appointment, e-mail, phone call, or any instance of electronic minutiae. And I’m not even terribly “connected” by some people’s standards.

But I’m more distracted than ever. Remember the Bible verse in Matthew 6:24? “No one can serve two masters.” Wise words, and I’m not even trying to serve two masters; it’s turns out to be more like 10 of them. I’m not decrying the advancement of technology but merely the fact that we are assaulted with so much of it on a daily basis that it inevitably leads to a distracted, unfocused approach to business and life in general. I end up as someone who is half in one task and half in another and is missing the pertinent details of both.

I know I am not alone. I see it show up in the busy business leader who tries to monitor his mobile phones as if he were at NASA headquarters guiding home the latest space shuttle. I often get frustrated in meetings with people like this because, as a copywriter for a healthcare marketing firm, these distractions result in huge problems that show up later when crafting strategy – I find questions that were not fully answered and objectives that are vague and unfocused. This inevitably leads to wasted time in follow-up calls, e-mails, and so on.

Contrast this with the business leaders I’ve met with who take a few precious minutes to have a real conversation. They’ve been informative, prepared, and never once tried to monitor their phone. Consequently, they have seen the best results from the work I do for them.

It’s lesson I need to take to heart as well. I’ve heard it said that whatever gets your attention, gets you. Focus on what’s important.

When my dad was in high school one of his teachers went around the room asking what each student wanted to be when they got out of school. There were the typical answers of lawyer, business owner, doctor, and nurse, among others. However, when the teacher got to Dad he responded that he wanted to be an Indian. While certainly annoyed by the curious answer, the teacher begged an explanation to which Dad simply responded that there seemed to be enough chiefs in the room and not enough Indians. My dad went on to own his own business and provided a very nice living for my mom and me. I can’t say that I’ve ever felt my dad was a “me too” sort of man. He didn’t necessarily go along with the crowd. He did and continues to do the right thing at the right time for the right reasons.

I don’t believe there is anything more tragic than a business plan based on a “me too” strategy. The tragedy comes because the focus of the strategy is on what is working for others rather than taking the time to focus on what will work best for your target. The vision is pointed in the wrong direction and, at best, is shortsighted. It reminds me of my mom’s proverbial wisdom when I wrongly followed the crowd and she asked, “If they jumped off a cliff to their doom would you follow?” Many market themselves as if they would. They say to themselves “Hey, Zappos.com has had huge success using Twitter so let’s use it!” So begins the “me too” strategy.

On one of our office walls we put a line from the Dr. Suess book And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street that reads “Marco, keep your eyelids up and see what you can see.” Innovation is founded in the fundamental exercise of seeing, listening and touching the world around you, sensing the needs that aren’t being met and moving swiftly to fulfill those need. No matter the business sector, innovators will rise to the top and blaze the trail that the “me too’s” will ultimately follow. Trendsetters will never find themselves listed among the “me too” groups. In the book IdeaSpotting: How To Find Your Next Great Idea, Sam Harrison quotes Apple’s Steve Jobs as saying “The starting point for the iPod wasn’t a chip or a design. The starting point was the question, ‘What’s the user experience?’” When you follow the true needs of your target you’ll find yourself being unique and profitable.

You have to choose whether you will be an innovator or a “me too” organization. You would do well to take Muriel Strode’s advice, “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Until next time – keep your pulse strong.