As we approach the much-anticipated countdown, the exchanges of good cheer at midnight and the traditional caroling of “Auld Lang Syne” to make the transformation complete, we wake up the next day expecting change to accompany the calendar’s new date. The number of gym memberships will skyrocket as cigarette sales slump, but we propose a resolution of a different sort: to improve the web experience. This is a broad goal that can be achieved through adopting a few simple resolutions. Change doesn’t occur overnight; instead it takes initiative and action to happen. The world’s eyes are upon the online scene, anxious to see where it will go next. Let’s give ‘em something to talk about. Let’s be the change we all wish to see and resolve to create better, more engaging online experiences. Here’s a few resolutions to consider:

1. Resolve to know your audience.

If you’ve been slacking on this critical step, there’s no better time than now to improve your focus. “User experience” literally starts with just that—the user. First, identify who this person is and why. Who uses your brand and your site? Who do you want to use it? Get to know these people better than you know yourself. Understand how they use, why they use and what they want out of the experience, and apply this information to create a site that delivers and keeps them coming back.

2. Resolve to keep it simple.

Simplicity is a beautiful thing and an aspect that is extremely attractive to users. Don’t overcomplicate things. Make navigation easy and the next step obvious. Use design elements to enhance this process and create an atmosphere that makes the user feel confident in their use. It’s that simple.

3. Resolve to learn from others.

It’s always good to look around and check out what others are doing. There’s a lot that can be learned from examining a good website and determining what makes it so great. It’s okay to adopt practices you admire and integrate these successful elements into your own design. As much as one can take away from a good site, almost more can be learned from a bad one. Understand why it fails and what could be done to avoid the problems if your site is suffering similar pitfalls. Make sure that your site isn’t making the same mistakes that others have. Learn from these sites and use your acquired knowledge to take yours to the next level.

4. Resolve to generate better content.

In 2012, content is still king. If you haven’t been giving it the appropriate amount of attention, make this your New Year’s resolution. Whatever it is you are putting out to the world, make it interesting and engaging. It’s a wonderful time we live in; online interface gives us the opportunity to have real-time two-way conversations with our users, but it is often up to the administrator to start the process. So get ‘em talking, and make it good.

5. Resolve to be engaging.

Again, we are all in the interactive business now. To get users to interact with you, you must engage them. This goes back to knowing your audience—provide them with what they need and want. Appeal to them in a way that attracts them to your brand and makes them want to get involved.

6. Resolve to thoroughly test.

Many of a website’s issues can be caught and correctly early on testing—if you give the right amount of attention to this step of the process. A website abound with errors, broken links and malfunctioning features is a huge turnoff to users and can give a negative connotation to your brand. Unlike much in business, this is something that you can control. Dominate in testing your site so it’s in top form when it’s presented to the world.

7. Resolve to listen.

Everyone has a voice now, and it would be foolish not to listen to what’s being said. Monitor the conversation going on about your brand—it’s right in front of you—and respond to the feedback. Address problems, make improvements where needed and build strong relationships with your users. You can learn a lot from their comments, so be mindful of your brand’s response.

8. Resolve to update regularly.

The beauty of an online presence is that it’s current—so keep it that way. Maintaining an up-to-date website fosters a positive perception of your brand as being modern. Establish a web presence that is responsive and timely, both to the changes of the business world and the commentary of users. Create an atmosphere in which you appear to actively participate.

9. Resolve to cover new platforms.

The Digital Age has provided us with multiple platforms from which brands can present information and interact with consumers. Not all will be relevant to your brand, but it’s wise to make use of the ones that can expand your brand’s presence and touch consumers in new and different ways. Always be on the look out for new programs and networks that allow you to reach your users and connect with them.

10. Resolve to be media-friendly.

Continuing on with the point made in Resolution #9, for a brand to reach heightened success in today’s day and age, it must take advantage of the media available and those that will be developed over the coming year. Ensure that your brand is not left out of this growing phenomenon and cover all appropriate bases. Have your brand be there in the way its users need and want it to be. Update your brand’s profile on these forums frequently and use them to gain further insight into your business and your consumers. Being media-friendly builds better relationships within the industry and with users. Come on, everyone else is doing it. You should be, too.

2012 is sure to hold even more changes for the business landscape, which makes it imperative to resolve to be ready. If you feel that you are already exercising these practices, do it even better than before. There is always room for improvement, and if you need the start of a new year to motivate you, now is the time.

Let’s all resolve to grow and create a bigger and better online scene than the world has yet to see.

Here is to a Happy New Year.

source: digby.com

Everyone has heard the old adage “Beauty is only skin deep.” While this line usually refers to the importance of a person’s personality, this can also be applied to the focus that should be placed on a website’s user experience over its visual aesthetics. Don’t get me wrong, a beautiful website is not a bad thing. In fact, attractive visuals can assist in accomplishing a website’s objectives—attracting users, intriguing them to go further into the site, making their next action obvious, etc.—but it is important to ensure that usability does not fall to the wayside of building a pretty site.

In a world of ever-increasing competition, branding has become critical for any company to prove successful. The idea of branding transcends simple elements like logos, colors or taglines; instead, it represents a compilation of the attitudes and feelings that consumers attach to your company and its products or services. While a company can control the messages it puts out and the quality of its products and services, it does not have control over how its efforts are perceived by the public. Creating a brand consistent with the company’s category and culture with every element in harmony with each other is something that takes time and attention, but if done correctly can yield great rewards.

If you don’t think branding is important, just take a second to consider the price difference between a Lexus and a Kia, a MacBook and an Acer, or any brand and its generic. For me, it’s Aquafresh toothpaste. I buy no other toothpaste, regardless of any sales or promotions on other brands. In fact, I am so devoted to the Aquafresh name that I take it everywhere with me to ensure that I don’t have to use anything else. It’s that important to me. You want your brand to be to consumers what Aquafresh is to me. So the question becomes how to achieve this kind of consumer loyalty.

First, it’s critical to decide what exactly it is you want your brand to stand for. To be successful in branding, all of your efforts must be focused, and to for your efforts to be focused, you must have a unifying message. You want to develop a brand message that is unique, something that hasn’t been done before. Not only will this differentiate your brand from competitors in a distinct way, it will prevent any confusion among consumers. You want them to instantly connect the desired feelings and attitudes to your brand and not anyone else’s.

Once you have your message, you need to enforce it. Reiterate this message with every advertisement, social media post and promotional event. Everything your company puts out should be instantly accredited to your brand. It’s important to maintain a consistent look and tone that unifies these messages to be unmistakably identified as that of your brand.

While a consistent appearance of elements related to your brand helps consumers to make the connections, this doesn’t necessarily mean that everything your brand puts out needs to “match.” Instead, developing a general look with a consistent color palette and font selection and maintaining a harmonious tone for all messages will effectively achieve consumer brand recognition. This also allows for creative freedom to present messages in new and fresh ways in the future. This is a key point considering that in order to continue to build your brand in a constructive and favorable manner, you must periodically alter its presentation to stay current and relevant to consumers.

Branding is what truly separates otherwise similar products. You want your brand to be highly regarded and top-of-mind—the kind of brand that people will go out of their way to get. By building relationships with your consumers, you make emotional connections that are stronger than any other incentive.

So take some time, find out what exactly it is with which you want your brand to become synonymous, then develop your company and its communication to reinforce this message and drive the point home to consumers. Give your brand meaning. If your brand doesn’t stand for something, it will surely fall.

So stand strong!

- Savannah Harper, LB Wordsmith

About a week into November, Internet giant Google added a feature to it’s recently developed Google Plus social network—Google Plus Business Pages—that it projects to be one of the most valuable online marketing tools for companies yet. David Amerland described it in his article on Technorati.com as having the intention of allowing “businesses and brands to create the same close, personal connection with their potential customers as individuals who have been using the social network, since it opened, have done with each other.”

This certainly does sound exciting, but just as many were hesitant to invest the time to create a personal profile for yet another social network, many businesses are asking what the unique benefit is to taking advantage of this new service. After some online research, it seems that the majority of the blogosphere is optimistic that the added options for businesses will add value to marketing efforts. But the question remains—how? Here’s what we found:

Google Plus Business Pages is often compared to Facebook Pages, but it seems that their names are the most similar element of these two services. While marketing over Facebook and Twitter have revolutionized online marketing, it falls short in the fact that efforts via these vehicles only reach those to whom they are already connected. In other words, only those who “like” a page for “follow” an account will receive a company’s message disseminated over these networks. Amerland claims that Google Plus Business Pages differs in that it “can shorten the path [to a company’s site] by quite a bit, creating a winning proposition for brands which want to attract more customers, businesses which want to be found locally and marketers who want to help their clients succeed.”

With Google Plus Business Pages, business can be sought out by online consumers and engage in conversation with these potential customers. They can then be directed to the company’s page where they are provided with more information and the option to add a badge and receive updates. Any +1 activity can be extended to positively affect Google search results. Considering Google is the largest, most popular search engine used today, it’s not a bad idea to team up with this winner. Generating excitement for your brand on the Google Plus Business forum is rewarded with improvements in SEO. Not a bad deal.

With Google Plus Business Pages, companies can share breaking news, updates, promotions and more with the different people interested in their products or services. Brands can also promote their business with the +1 service all across the Web. And like everything Google does, the results can be measured with analytics provided by the service to help monitor a page’s progress and effectiveness.

While the true value of Google Plus Business Pages has yet to be seen, under a name like Google, it’s likely that this could just be the next big thing. The marketing landscape has undergone drastic changes in the past five years, but this evolution is far from over. Don’t be left behind as the rest of the world enters the next stage. Check out Google Plus Business Pages and decide for yourself if it could help your company reach the next level.

-Written by Savannah Harper, LB Wordsmith

By now almost everyone has felt the effects of the economic downturn that has taken place over recent years. In the wake of a global recession, numbers have been crunched, companies have become leaner and many independent business owners have been forced to close their doors. This last point is especially unfortunate considering that many economists believe small businesses to be the driving force of our country’s economy. The growth of small businesses generates new capital and offers job opportunities to an increasingly unemployed nation.

November 26 marks the second year that American Express will celebrate an event it’s calling “Small Business Saturday.” On this day, which falls during one of the nation’s busiest shopping weekends of the year, the company encourages the millions of American shoppers who will be out to “Shop Small” and support their “favorite local stores and help fuel the economy.” This noble effort is not only a call to action for consumers but also provides opportunities for small businesses to create offers, initiate Facebook communities and receive e-marketing materials to promote their businesses online.

Lifeblue understands that there are challenges that face any of the hopeful individuals out there who start out with nothing but a dream and a plan. In our five years of operation, LB has not only survived, but thrived, and while much of this success is attributed to providing a quality service, much of it can also be credited to the company’s use of cost-effective marketing tools now available to just about anyone with an Internet connection. Below we have outlined some of the ways that these services can help a small business become a success.

Company Website
As a company that designs and builds websites, we firmly believe in the power of an effective and engaging online experience. In this day and age, much of a business’ consumer traffic is generated by an interest that is sparked long before that person is in the vicinity of your store, but instead miles away in front of his computer. Create a good, user-friendly website that allows consumers to research your company and its products and services. As more and more people turn to mobile for all of their online needs, having a working mobile site is also in your best interest. Just make sure your site is in shape; it’s the window into your store.

Review Sites
Review sites, such as Yelp, and reviews found on Google Maps can also prove important in developing your business. The Digital Age allows for customers to have their say and spread word-of-mouth endorsements—or defamation—to a global audience. While you can’t necessarily control what gets said about your business, you can regulate how you react to it. Respond to negative comments. This can help you discover how to improve and gives you the opportunity to right your wrong and turn an unsatisfied customer into a very happy one. Use review resources to know exactly what’s being said about your company. These comments can provide insight on how to improve and reveal opportunities to capitalize on something that works.

Social Media
The rise of social media platforms like Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter and Foursquare have provided any company with an inexpensive method of customer engagement. These vehicles allow for user interaction and build on consumer relationships by providing a forum that fosters the two-way conversation between company and customer. Create an offer on FourSquare that brings in business, or use a Facebook page to advertise promotions to consumers that will build loyalty. Take advantage of the location features on these programs that allow consumers to publicize their visit to your establishment. One of the best parts about social media is that it can generate something money can’t buy: word-of-mouth endorsements with the potential of worldwide reach.

Online Video
While paid commercials are expensive, publishing videos to your own YouTube channel is not. The video site YouTube gives anyone the opportunity to create and share video worldwide, and as a small business, it could be just what you need to get your message out. Viral videos have been shown to possess great influential power and can even be more effective than a commercial. Create one and post it on your website and social media profiles to gain exposure. The great thing about creating your own online video is that there are no time restrictions, and it allows for more artistic freedom in crafting your message.

SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) can also help get your business out there. Starting out, your business’ site will not be at the forefront of an organic search simply because of its newness. Good SEO practices can help guide consumers to your site when they are searching for a product or service your company provides. Look into using programs like Google AdWords, where you can purchase keywords that will bring up your site in a relevant search. Most of these programs provide analytics to evaluate the effectiveness of your paid placement, and you can then decide whether or not this tactic is working for you and adjust accordingly.

This is an exciting time to be taking the plunge and investing in your own business. With a variety of tools available online, it has never been easier to reach millions with your message. Advertising can be expensive, but online marketing costs very little and can be just as effective.

Today you have the chance to build personal relationships with consumers around the world and engage them with media that is interactive and dynamic.

Small businesses are extremely important to the American economy. When you think about it, every large, successful business today started out as a small business itself. Use these tools to find the mix that works for your company, and let the business start booming.

-Savannah Harper, LB Wordsmith

Today I was inspired by a recent article on Forbes online…called “Are You Making the Right Connections?”. It got me thinking about how we strategize internally at LB and some of the things we discuss on a regular basis about ensuring we remain creative and inspired so that we deliver amazing experiences for our clients.

Holly Green is the contributing author and I found her angle interesting: “What do Velcro, barbed wire, and chainsaws have in common? They were all patterned after structures found in nature.”

I would also argue these ideas were developed out of constraints and the need to solve a problem. Looking at something familiar and applying in a different way.

Here are her three great examples of innovation inspired by nature:

1. “Velcro was invented in 1941 by Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral. After returning home from a hunting trip, he noticed a large amount of cockleburs stuck to his clothes and his dog’s fur. Out of curiosity, he stuck a few under a microscope and saw that each bur consisted of hundreds of little hooks that caught on anything with a loop, such as clothing or animal fur. He surmised that if he could duplicate the hooks and loops with other materials, he could bind them together in a similar fashion.”

2. “When ranchers first began raising cattle on the wide-open plains, they used the Osage orange as fencing material. But the thorny bush took a lot of time and effort to transplant and grow. Eventually, someone hit on the idea of fashioning wire fences patterned after the Osage’s sharp thorns. This innovation made it affordable to fence vast areas of land, and led to the practice of animal husbandry on a much larger scale.”

3. “Nature also provided the inspiration for the modern chainsaw. In 1946, a man chopping wood in Oregon noticed several timber beetle larvae chewing through the logs around him. A short while later, he developed a chain with interlocking links that mimicked the chewing action of their teeth. This led to the development of the first chainsaw that could cut with, or against, the grain of the wood.”

As Green points out, “Original ideas come from recognizing new connections between familiar things and transforming them into something new. So the next time you see a pattern — whether it comes from a beetle grub chewing through a log, or the pile of junk mail sitting on your countertop — pause for a moment and ask yourself, “How can I relate this to something I already know well?” You’ll be amazed at what you can come up with!

We believe in balancing innovation and experience as we embark on this journey with our clients. We are often inspired by physical offline objects that might lead to design inspiration for an interactive engagement and ultimately create an amazing user experience in the online world. We like to believe the greatest creativity sometimes comes from constraints that are bookended with limitless possibility.

Look around you. You never know what might become your muse for creative inspiration.

Photo courtesy of swurl.com.au