Tagcase study

Blogging Case Study: The Story of the Most Popular Haiku Deck of All Time

Blogging Inspiration

2 Months; 250K Views

When design blogger Desiree Groenendal of Vosgesparis used Haiku Deck for her keynote at Hive Berlin, and racked up more close to a quarter-million views in just two months, we had to find out more!

Haiku Deck: How did you hear about Haiku Deck, and what inspired you to try it?

Desiree: I first heard about it from a fellow blogger. I had to make a presentation in a very short time, and since I’d never made one before I asked around on what to use and what would be the easiest to work with.

Many of the programs that were suggested just looked a bit too boring to me. And others looked so difficult to learn. I am a very visual person, and I wanted it to look beautiful. When I saw the black and white Haiku Decks in the Gallery, I knew instantly that this was what I wanted.

I am a very visual person, and I wanted it to look beautiful. When I saw the black and white Haiku Decks in the Gallery, I knew instantly that this was what I wanted.

Haiku Deck: How did creating your first Haiku Deck go?

Desiree: I had never used a presentation tool before, so it was all new to me. I thought it was so easy to learn and to use. Once I found out the right size for the background images I created them on my laptop, uploaded them to my Dropbox, and made the slides one by one on the iPad.

I loved how easy it was to adjust the position of the text. Also, it was very easy to change the order of the slides — the whole process was really very stress-free.

Tip: You can easily import photos to Haiku Deck from your iPad camera roll, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, Dropbox, and more.

Haiku Deck: Your Haiku Deck, “The Mini Company,” with advice for monetizing a blog, has been viewed almost 250,000 times. (Wow!) What do you think is driving so much interest?

Desiree: I’ve been surprised myself! I think bloggers like it because it answers things we are all wondering about when we start. I actually got several emails from bloggers with even more questions.

The Mini Company – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Haiku Deck: What tips or ideas do you have for bloggers who might be interested in trying Haiku Deck?

SEO Checklist for Haiku Deck

June 14, 2013 / Catherine Carr / 4 Comments

SEO Checklist

Once you’ve created your amazing Haiku Deck, use this handy SEO checklist to maximize the content value of your work and make your deck as discoverable as possible.

1. Optimize Your Title

Think of your title like a headline: Concise, compelling, and keyword-rich.

Tip: You can choose your deck’s title when you create a new deck, or edit it any time.

2. Create a Title Slide

To maximize flexibility and discoverability for your deck, be sure to create a cover slide that includes your deck’s title and sets context. Depending on the purpose of your deck, you might also want to include your name (or the speaker’s name, if you’re doing a recap), the event name and date, a hashtag, and so on. Here are a couple of examples.

SEO Checklist for Haiku Deck: Sample title slide

Sample title slide for a talk recap

Sample title slide for a “list” content piece

3. Incorporate Keywords into Slide Text

Think of each slide as a unique content asset, using keywords strategically to extend your content value. Remember that you can link to or pin individual slides. (See some examples on our Quotes and Education Quotes Pinterest boards.)

SEO Checklist for Haiku Deck: Creating keyword-rich slides

Sample slide reinforcing high-value keywords

4. Include a Closing Slide

Even though each Haiku Deck you publish includes your contact info, it’s a good idea to include a wrap-up slide to direct readers to more information or highlight ways to connect with you, like this one:

Sample “Learn more” slide

5. Add Public Notes

Haiku Deck’s Public Notes feature is the ideal way to add richness, content value, and more keywords to your work without cluttering up your slides. You can include supporting detail, additional information, and even links. Everything you need to know: Turn Presentations into Content Assets with Public Notes.

Tip: Be sure to include links to drive traffic back to your blog or website. To add a link, use the full http:// format.

SEO Checklist for Haiku Deck: Adding Public Notes

Sample Haiku Deck slide with accompanying public notes

6. Set Privacy to Public and Publish to the Web

If you’ve been keeping your deck private or restricted while you work on it, don’t forget to change the privacy setting to public when you publish your deck to make it fully searchable. More here: Adjusting Your Deck’s Privacy Settings and Publishing and Sharing.

Setting privacy on Haiku Deck for iPad

Publish settings on the Haiku Deck Web App

7. Add a Deck Description

For the cherry on top, add a description to your deck from the website. This is effectively your meta description, and it’s the default text that will appear when your deck is shared to social sites like Facebook or LinkedIn.

Sample deck description.

To edit your deck description from the Web App:

Click the SHARE button or EXPORT for your deck in the top right corner from Edit Mode. In the window that pops up, you can enter a description and choose a category for your deck.

To view the deck we’ve been showcasing here in its full form, check out Haiku Deck Guru Lois Zachary’s 8 Tips for Effective Communication.

8. Embed Your Deck in Your Website or Blog

Once you’ve created the ultimate Haiku Deck, don’t forget to amp up its SEO value by embedding it in your blog or website. It’s easy! For an example, take a look at how Haiku Deck Guru Nick Armstrong embedded his WTF Marketing Manifesto in his blog.

More Tips?

If you have more tips for extending the content value of your Haiku Decks, we’d love to hear them! Please let us know in the comments.

How to Enrich Conferences and Events with Haiku Deck

June 14, 2013 / Catherine Carr / 0 Comments

Enlivening Events

If you’re speaking at conferences or events, we certainly hope you’re using Haiku Deck (and your audience will thank you, too)! But there are plenty of ways to use Haiku Deck to circulate ideas, capture inspiration, and build relationships–even if you’re in the audience, or attending virtually.

Before the Event

If you’re organizing an event, creating a Haiku Deck is a great way to build awareness and excitement ahead of time. You can easily post these decks to your blog or website and circulate them (regularly) across all of your social media channels. Here’s a Haiku Deck created to build buzz for the LAUNCH festival organized by Jason Calicanis:

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/bmzILgFNtm/launch-festival-2013

Tips and best practices:

Prominently feature the name, location, and date of your event.
Include short testimonials from previous event attendees.
Include quotes from featured speakers (these can also be drawn from the session descriptions on your website).
Use a compelling mix of literal, evocative, and abstract images.
Highlight specific program highlights and sessions.
Mention and thank sponsors.
Include a final slide with the event website, hashtag, and other key contact info.
Use the public notes feature to add links or other supporting details.
Be sure to notify anyone you’re quoted or mentioned in your deck and encourage them to share with their own networks (Twitter works especially well for this).
Even if you’re not organizing the event, you can create a Haiku Deck to reflect on your goals and thoughts beforehand, like this one by Rafranz Davis.

More “before the event” Haiku Decks:

During the Event

You can also use Haiku Deck as a fun and unique idea-sharing tool, to capture quotable gems and circulate them with your networks.

You can create a Haiku Deck recap of a particular talk, like this one by Haiku Deck Guru Wendy Townley at the ALT Summit:

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/mLR57ctKTc/alt-summit-slc-2013-personal-branding

Another approach is to create a “highlights” Haiku Deck, with sound bites from a wide range of speakers. Here’s an example I made while sitting in the audience at the XConomy Mobile Madness Northwest Forum:

http://www.haikudeck.com/p/8Mn4tGzs9O/xconomy-forum-sound-bites

Here’s an excellent example by the Bruce Clay team, combining Haiku Deck slides with “live blog” links to offer in-depth coverage of SMX West 2014.

Capturing events with Haiku Deck: Example from SMX West 2014

Click to view the full Haiku Deck with notes and links

Tips and best practices:

Consider creating the first few slides of your deck to set context in advance, so you can give the speaker(s) your full attention.
You can either take notes and create your Haiku Deck later, or create your Haiku Deck “live,” giving it a final polish later before you publish.
Select a theme that suits the speaker’s style or talk topic.
Use a mix of literal and evocative images, or some abstract imagery that complements the topic.
If there’s an event hashtag, keep an eye out for photos attendees have taken that you can incorporate into your deck, or sound bites you might have missed. (Bonus: Tweets are usually short enough to fit on a Haik Deck slide.)
You can even make a Haiku Deck of sound bites if you’re following along virtually, via Twitter and an event hashtag–I created this one, of the closing keynote at IntegratED PDX, on the train since I couldn’t be in the room during the talk.

More “during the event” Haiku Decks:

Fireside Chat with Chamath Palihapitiya: LAUNCH Festival Keynote
Women Who Rock: Pecha Kucha Night at Seattle Art Museum
Innovations in Storytelling: Elan Lee at Seattle Interactive Conference
Becoming a Mobile Leaner: Travis Allen at IntegratED PDX
Elon Musk Quotes from #SXSWI

After the Event

Creating a Haiku Deck is also a powerful way to reflect on a conference and share your observations, key trends, or things that inspired you. As you review your notes, you can build a deck that captures your experience, like this one by Haiku Deck Guru Simon McKenzie:

How to Enrich Conferences and Events with Haiku Deck

Click to view the full Haiku Deck with notes

Tips and best practices:

Add more context and details to your deck using the Public Notes feature
Share your deck using the event hashtag
Share your slides across your social networks, and be sure to notify everybody you mentioned or quoted to maximize exposure of your work (Twitter works especially well for this)
Upload your deck to Slideshare, especially if the event you attended is being featured on the Slideshare home page
If you’re blogging about your experience, be sure to embed your deck to help your blog post stand out
If your deck contains quotes, you can maximize your content value by Pinning (and Tweeting) each individual slide. See examples on our Education Quotes Pinterest board.

More “After the Event” Haiku Decks:

The Main Event

Of course, if you are up on stage, and you did use Haiku Deck for your slides (Hai-5!), don’t forget to share them with the event attendees using the social share and embed buttons–and with us! Send a link to your deck to gallery@haikudeck.com, and we’ll consider them for our Featured or Popular Gallery or our Pinterest boards.

iPads in the Classroom: Sensory Poems and Character Studies

April 12, 2013 / Catherine Carr / 1 Comment

We love seeing how innovative educators are using Haiku Deck to bring creativity to iPads in the classroom. When we saw tweets from Annie Lafont (of Acacia Elementary in Fullerton, CA) about her students’ storytelling projects, we got in touch to hear more.

4th graders using Haiku Deck at Acacia Elementary

Q&A with Fourth Grade Teacher Annie Lafont

Haiku Deck: What inspired you to try Haiku Deck?

iPads in the Classroom: Haiku Deck Goes New School

February 15, 2013 / Adam Tratt / 0 Comments

From science labs to homework assignments, innovative teachers, administrators, and students are embracing Haiku Deck for iPads in the classroom. No old school stuff here! Here are a few of our favorite examples.

Illustrating Lessons

Educator and Haiku Deck Guru Danielle Filas used Haiku Deck to enliven her lecture on transitions in essay writing.

Transitions – Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;

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Haiku Deck Help: Collaborating on a Haiku Deck

February 11, 2013 / Adam Tratt / 0 Comments

Someday we plan to add the ability for multiple contributors to collaborate on a single Haiku Deck. But in the meantime, in this special edition of Haiku Deck help, here’s how we recently partnered with Haiku Deck Guru Greg Bamford on a deck he presented at EduCon in Philadelphia.

Outlining in Google Docs

First, Greg created a slide-by-slide outline for his talk in email. Catherine (our VP of Marketing) pulled the outline into a shared Google Doc and fleshed it out with ideas for image direction and suggested keywords for image searching.

Haiku Deck with Notes: It’s Business Time!

January 22, 2013 / Catherine Carr / 2 Comments

If you haven’t yet tried the powerful Notes feature, take a look at these awesome examples of Haiku Deck in the workplace–for training, for marketing, for communicating unique philosophies and competitive advantages. In other words, it’s business time, people! Here are a few of our recent favorites, for your inspiration.

Online Training

1. Haiku Deck is not just for live talks; you can also use it to create standout materials for webinars and online training sessions. Michele Mizejewski created this deck as an intro/overview for an online course she teaches for the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL):