The New Standard of Web Sites | Simple & Integrated

Posted on December 4, 2009 by sparklesthesky

For someone who has been associated with the design industry for so long and in tune with web site design since its infancy in the early 90’s, I truly marvel at how little things have progressed design wise. In the early 90’s, if you could code HTML and had minimal design skills, you could add a larger-than-average notch to your belt.

The Epitome of Early Web Design

My own notch came in 1993 when I created a social-political activist web site with a focus on the then, raging Bosnian war. I had no coding  nor graphic design experience but would spend every waking hour outside of my full-time position at Landor coding and designing determined to get information out there to the masses instantaneously. My goal was relatively simple: to present a lot of information including links and directories categorized by topic that was easy to use, easy to find (in terms of information) and have it look (relatively) commercial. By the time the site was launched, it was referenced to around the globe, and I was being peppered with all sorts of how-to questions about web sites by high-level execs at my agency. By today’s standards, the design was certainly not the best in the world but what worked and had people interested was the ease of use coupled with ease of navigation.

Fast forward a decade and a half and we’ve all seen web sites go from being a 2 dimensional online brochure (1990’s) to Flash animation and sound heavy (late 1990’s/early 2000’s) to the introduction of blogs (early 2000’s) to the boom of integrated social media and social networking in particular (late 2000’s). What’s ironic about today’s design aesthetic is that simple coupled with social media pushing ability is in. Intricate design and flashy animation is out and has been for awhile now. (Although I have to say when done well, luxury may be the only category to still get away with this such as fashion designer Zac Posen’s site.) Despite the evolution of anything goes to fancy back to simple-but-viral is that ease of use and intuitive navigation is still in and will always be in no matter where the next evolution of design takes us. Yet, these two relatively simple concepts may be the greatest challenge for many companies – large and small alike – to implement.

zacposen.com

For nearly 100% of the small business owners who walk through my doors for brand coaching sessions, there is a recurring theme: what to do for a site, how to weave it into social media, and how to pay for it. My answer more often than not? Get WordPress. WordPress.com is free, provides free basic hosting and is hands down the easiest way to create a web presence, provide an integrated blog and have the (albeit rather limited) means to push out information for social media sharing. Several generally well-designed templates are available free of charge that can be customized with a photo or graphic header for a more customized feel. For about $15 a year, a branded URL (such as www.demesabrands.com) can be pointed to the WordPress site/blog rather than the generically assigned yourname.wordpress.com. And for the extra adventurous, $10 will give you or your intern the ability to customize the CSS code to further customize the visual formatting.

Example of Semi-Customized WordPress.com Site/Blog

Does it work for every business? Obviously a mature product company selling online is going to need a more sophisticated system for a shopping cart and secured payments. (For small businesses with more sophisticated needs, building the site around WordPress.org’s product is the other option for a fee and your own designers.) Businesses that rely on large media (video and music) files will have to find a place to house the actual files elsewhere. But frankly for the vast majority of small businesses I’ve coached from consultants and service professionals to non-profits to retail and restaurants, WordPress.com is a simple way to achieve several goals at once:

1.  Have a web presence with pages for company info, product/service info, contact, etc.

2.  Have an integrated blog to write about the latest promotions, events or knowledge for your clients

3.  Have the ability to push blog/site content to social media sites and point social media posts BACK to the site

4.  Have a semi-customized, “professional” design for no to little money

5.  If organized right, achieve the holy grail of ease of use and navigation

6.  Achieve all of the above in a relatively short amount of time

WordPress coupled with a well-designed company and/or product logo, professional photographs that support the brand image and site objectives, site and blog copy that supports the brand’s positioning in the marketplace and tells people right away what makes BrandX unique and relevant to XYZ target audience(s). Easy, intuitive layout and navigation with the ability to push to social media rounds out the small business toolkit.

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How To Reach Reporters & Editors | Tips from NY Times

Posted on November 30, 2009 by sparklesthesky

You’re a small business. You have a great pitch for a news story. Or maybe you want to weigh in your expert opinion about a relevant and timely news topic. You’re a small business. You have no PR person at your beckon call. Out of luck? Not entirely. Reporters, editors and producers of all newspapers and news tv shows can be reached by email with a little digging and investigation. Their time is limited and frankly few things that comes across their screen is a winner. There is zero time for novice questions or words of encouragement, or more often than not, even an acknowledgment of email receipt. But if you have a professional press release that screams timely and newsworthy, you too can reach the top of the news food chain.

Last week, Jim Schachter, editor for digital initiatives at The New York Times, answered questions from NYT readers last week and offered a few helpful hints as to how to reach their reporters and editors. Click to read:  Reaching Reporters & Editors.

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Potty Training, Clients & Facebook – Tactics for Personal & Professional Sanity

Posted on November 25, 2009 by sparklesthesky

When it comes to everyone’s favorite social networking site, to filter or not to filter is the big question asked by many small business owners on especially Facebook. The purpose of a Facebook filter is to weed out and separate who can read what about your private life, your professional life and any other variation you might think of, so that messages verbally and visually are segregated according to whom you would like to inform.

So let’s say, Janie’s playdate fiasco isn’t the most relevant to your new CPA client or last night’s recount of one Chardonnay too many may not enthrall a potential client, setting up a filter can provide an excellent opportunity to keep your personal from your business lists separate.

Of course using filters means taking the time to create “friend lists” where you delegate each individual person to whichever list you prefer to create. Once the friend lists are created you can use the filter on your “home” page to even show which newsfeeds you’d prefer to see. If friends are more important than business colleagues, simply click on your “Friends” filter in the top left-hand corner and drag it to the top of your lists. Facebook will then show only the newsfeeds from this list. Not a bad idea if you’re just starting out on Facebook and want to see your client or potential customer list and be able to respond quickly to some of their posts.

Filters are certainly a great feature on Facebook, but they’re not the only way to go in terms of keeping separation between professional and personal lives. Consider either creating a Fan Page for your business (pros: lots of great features and an easy way to keep interested parties informed; cons: not everyone wants to join and the number is of fan pages is currently reaching almost spam levels) OR creating a separate profile for your business.

While Facebook does not officially favor profiles that are businesses, they do still exist and can be an interesting mix into your social media strategy. For instance, does your brand have a mascot or an interesting character that can be created and become the persona and “voice” of the branded profile? (Think “Jack” of Jack in the Box commercials.) Thinking further outside the box, can you create a fictional character that represents the brand but isn’t necessarily you? This is a tactic that could be employed for larger service or consumer-oriented tactics. (Think “Mac” from Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials.)

Of course, if you are your brand (such as a CPA, lawyer, web developer, etc.) being you is perfectly fine as well. The decision to use filters or other tactics to separate personal from professional can only be made by you and should reflect what you are the most comfortable with.

Are you currently employing one of these techniques on Facebook for your small business? Feel free to share your experiences here.

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