There are about 1,001 different opinions on how to design and build a website. 

In my opinion, which I assume the world is waiting for, there are three elements to worry about, and most people start off by focusing on the wrong two. 

The three elements: 

• Content
• Technology
• Appearance

Yes. I do mean to imply that the correct order puts appearance in last place. 

I'm putting together a pair of presentations for Roosevelt University to help alumni navigate the world of social media. This one is a bit of an evolution of the presentation I gave a few weeks back for Catalyzing Collaboration in two ways: 

I just received an email from my old fraternity (Sigma Alpha Mu, if you're curious) promoting a networking tool they're calling Six Degrees of SAM.

I've embedded the promotional video below - it's a great concept. I looks like it serves two goals:

How many membership organizations or university alumni programs could claim the following problem statement?

1. Our Alumni/Members should be better connected to support the organization and each other’s businesses.
2. Our organization overall needs a more effective outreach effort to existing and prospective members
3. Awesome. Finance it yourself, genius.

Concept

Let's say you're due for a redesign on your website.

This site is my maiden voyage with Drupal and so far I'm very impressed. I've worked with content management systems in the past of wildly varying quality. The flexible ones are hard to learn and use. The easy to use ones force you into a rigid structure.

Drupal so far is both easy to learn, and amazingly flexible.

Following are recent presentations on a variety of marketing, social media and business topics.

Catalyzing Collaboration - www.catalyzing.net
June 25, 2010

Catalyzing Collaboration is a professional association made up of life sciences professionals in the Chicago area. The organization's goal is to connect research scientists, investors and business executives to promote Chicago as a major hub for the life sciences field.

Everyone says social media offers unprecedented opportunities for companies and organizations to connect with customers, constituents and members.

Everyone said the same thing about blogs five years ago. Some organizations achieved impressive results with blogs such as new customers and engaged members. Most did not.

Why?

The potential strength of social media (and blogs) is also its weakness. Social media is, first and foremost, a social activity. That means you need people who are passionate and committed to making a social media strategy work.

I gave a presentation to the Catalyzing Collaboration organization on Friday about building a life sciences community in Chicago, and it’s been dwelling in my brain ever since.

I've heard a lot about Drupal - most positive. I decided to give it a shot and built this website.

So far, so good. I've used several content management systems in the past, most are clunky beyond belief. This one has some odd qualities too, of course, but overall it's just as flexible and easy as advertised.