An Interview With Web 2.0 Professional Brian Cray

Brian Cray is a web 2.0 professional living in Columbus, Ohio. His work has been featured by Mashable, the Envato network, and Smashing Magazine among others. He’s an author, develops popular web apps such as Nearby Tweets and PXtoEM.com, and loves the outdoors in spite of his web obsession. I invited Brian to discuss his thoughts and opinions on the current state of web design and marketing, as well as tips and resources for other web designers. Enjoy!

Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge with us today Brian. For those outside the design community who may not know, in my opinion you are pretty much at the top of the food chain when it comes to marketing and websites. Let’s start off with the standard “how did you get started” question? Did you study something in particular or are you self-taught? What steps did you take to reach this level of proficiency?

Wow! Thanks for the stellar introduction Dhane! Here’s a little background on how I got started… <breaths deep>

I’ve always had fun designing websites, straight from the Geocities days with left-handed navigation, center-aligned text, and animated GIFs.

In 2003 I reignited my recreational web design passion but with a shift. I decided to kick things up a notch. Dynamic content and user interaction was the future and I wanted in.

After a little research I decided to write in PHP. This decision was followed by what could only be described as a knowledge onslaught. I spent many nights at coffee shops reading books on PHP, web design, web usability, web standards, etc.

All that knowledge had to be put to use. In 2004 I released Ohio Disc Golf Project (www.ohiodiscgolf.org) as a state-wide online community for Ohio disc gofers, boasting such tight user integration that the site maintained itself. In fact, it maintains itself to this day, with about 800 accounts and thousands of recreational visitors.

2004 was also a milestone in my life because it was the year I decided to go to college (after a post-high school party-filled hiatus). At the end of 2008 I graduated with my B.S. in marketing.

Today, my passion for the user’s experience, my development experience, and my marketing education comprise my approach to the Web.

What do you feel are the most important skills for a designer to have/develop?

The first skill I would say is empathy. You have to knock yourself down a few pegs and forget what you know. Because the only thing that matters is what your users know. If you can empathize with their situation you can create a sustainable product that matters. If you’re caught up with what you CAN do instead of what you SHOULD do, you’ll gloriously ride the tide of a fad that’s soon to crash with you inside.

There will always be opportunity for any professional ready to do what is necessary to ensure the user/customer is happy. Outside of that, I believe a web professional should know what tools he or she has to connect their employer with their customers on the Web.

Typography, navigation, web standards; those are all tactical. Our profession needs to become more strategic if want to play a more important role in organizations.

Finding new work as a project is coming to an end can be stressful. What are your best methods for finding/attracting clients?

Do side projects that you’re passionate about. I built PXtoEM.com, Nearby Tweets, and Ohio Disc Golf Project. These are not only showcases of my work but they give back to my professional community, which is a HUGE boost for my reputation.

Networking with the right people is essential to finding work. People prefer to do business on personal recommendations–whether its small business owners asking their friends or corporate executives asking their golfing buddies. Volunteer for a local professional organization if you’re not already.

When I first found your site I was reading something in my Google Reader that referenced one on your articles. How has your content played a role in getting your name (your brand) out in the web community?

I have a lot of thoughts about this, and I’ll try to sum up my answer by talking about content strategy.

Content strategy is extremely important to marketing a blog. By content strategy I mean this: What identifies your content, and how do you communicate that to your readers? Identifying factors could include such elements as writing style, topics, frequency, and purpose. Furthermore, how do you measure the success of your blog?

Some people write deep research but publish infrequently. Others post multiple times a day but their articles are seemingly random roundups. Both will appeal to different audiences and therefore engagement needs to measured differently for each. Well researched articles are mentioned inside posts while roundups are bookmarked on delicious and forgotten.

For my blog, I want to be a change agent for a particular audience: The social media crowd that still cares about depth. Note that this is a small crowd. Anyhow, based on this content strategy I measure my blog’s success by both social media activity (the social media crowd) and by direct interaction (change agent) such as comments or authentic ping backs.

Hopefully you found my blog referenced in another article because my content strategy is (or was) successful.

Where do you go for development inspiration, where do your ideas come from?

My ideas/inspiration come from Mr. User. They pay my bills.

I also read a TON. If you’d like to know what books I recommend for web design read http://briancray.com/2009/05/04/5-books-web-professionals/

Your approach to web design is very strategic. I feel this is one of the most, if not the most important step in any web project. Why do you think so many skip this step and dive straight in to their designs? In the short run it may keep the lights on, but what do you think some of the long term effects are?

I hate to say it but I think if someone went to college for web design or web development, he or she probably spent their major-area classes on Photoshop or Dreamweaver and as a result cannot make the connection between tactics and strategy. It’s unfortunate but I don’t think business strategy is emphasized in these degrees (yet).

Web design and development is a fragmented market because too many firms are doing day-to-day things instead of taking a step back, getting capital, setting direction, and THEN executing big strategies that bring big dollars.

Twitter is getting BIG! I recently wrote an article on Twitter that talks about using the medium to grow your business. What type of effect has Twitter had on your success, if any, and what type of impact do you see it having in the future (for better or for worse)?

Twitter has been great for networking and getting a sense of what’s going on in the World in terms of my profession and beyond.

For businesses, Twitter is a terrific opportunity to connect directly with customers to mine customer information or run sales promotions. Establishing direct connections with customers will have a profound effect on customer loyalty and sales opportunties.

On Nearby Tweets I outlined 5 practical ways for even small businesses to use Twitter (and specifically Nearby Tweets). Read it at http://nearbytweets.com/businesses

Brian Cray [dot] com has pretty good Google Page Rank and Alexa rankings. There are undoubtedly thousands of people who “look up to you” in regards to web design and marketing, is there anyone YOU look up to?

It’s crazy to think that people in my profession look up to me. I’m just a guy with one perspective. There are so many wonderful minds out there.

In terms of design I look up to Jakob Nielsen, Donald Norman, and John Maeda, whether people call them designers or not. I also look up to anyone who is ready to be a cheerleader for users and customers.

In terms of marketing I look up to Seth Godin and my Marketing Behavior professor in college John Pribble III. If you haven’t read any Seth Godin books, you are missing out.

How do you typically start a new project?

Step 0: The reason to start a new project should come from feedback from users/customers/stakeholders (don’t confuse stakeholders with shareholders).

Step 1: I list everything I know and can gather about the user, myself (or my client), and the competition.
Step 2: If applicable I do a quick SWOT analysis and TOWS matrix
Step 3: Clearly define project
Step 4: Clearly define project goals
Step 5: Clearly define how I can measure my progress or success
Step 6: If it’s a web design/development, I
Step a) Layout the user processes that will fulfill my project goals
Step b) Design those processes in the most user friendly way possible

When it’s all said and done, I monitor my success and restart when users tell me something new or different. If I need to bill a client for it, I explain to them that research suggests such and such and hope they bite.

Your name is also attached to projects such as “Nearby Tweets” and “PXtoEM”, care telling us how that came about?

I believe technology should make people’s lives easier, and that’s the function of both Nearby Tweets and PXtoEM.com. PXtoEM.com makes it easier to convert between pixels and EMs. Nearby Tweets makes it easier to connect with local people on Twitter.

I also believe single-purpose websites are the future of the Web because they are easier to market, easier to use, and web sites are no longer information islands–they can share information. See http://briancray.com/2009/05/01/9-reasons-single-purpose-website-app/

Marketing is undoubtedly an area most businesses and freelancers have difficulty with. Some believe it is essential, but waste tons of money using ineffective methods, while others believe “marketing is a myth”. What advice do you have to help get them over the hump?

It seems trite, but find what you love and do it… but do it better than anyone else. Don’t focus on becoming everything to everyone or you’ll be a diluted washed up general contractor who competes on price and eventually drive yourself out of business. Compete on competence and expertise. You should know exactly what it is you’re good at and your customers should know exactly what you’re good at.

To me the most important thing in marketing is to segment, target, and position (STP – learn more at http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_segmentation.htm). To establish a good basic knowledge of marketing spend some time at http://www.knowthis.com/