How your blog looks is just as important as how it sounds. Even if your blog content is top-notch, boring blog designs will discourage visitors from reading and will leave them quickly clicking away to your competitor’s blogs. A custom designed blog increases brand equity, and exploits the power of one of your most important online marketing and public relations tools.

1.  Make your purpose clear.

Your blog banner should have a title and subtitle that make it clear who you are and what your blog is all about. First-time visitors will quickly click away if they can not discover at a glance what you are trying to accomplish through blogging.

2.  Keep it simple.

There are so many different options you can integrate into your company blog, from colors to widgets, that it is often tempting to pile on too many. The result is a cluttered blog that is frustrating to navigate and visually chaotic. Review your blog every few months to determine whether any of the elements have become outdated or no longer relevant, and remove them.

3.  Take advantage of whitespace.

 Space out the graphic elements on your blog on your banner, in your posts, in your sidebar and readers will enjoy a heightened sense of readability and lightness as they browse your blog.

4.  Use complimentary colors.

Be judicious in choosing your color scheme; too many colors, or colors that are too bright, can turn off readers and cause them to click away sooner than they might otherwise.

5.  Place key information “above the fold.”

Place important information such as your call to action, at  the top half of your blog page, where readers will be able to see it as soon as the page loads into their browser window.

6.  Choose a readable font.

Is your copy too large? Too small? Copy that is too large can immediately turn viewers off, while copy that is too small will discourage older viewers from reading your content. Choose a copy size that is easy to read.

7.  Add visual interest with photos.

Humans are visually stimulated, and let’s face it: reading is much more fun when supplemented with pretty pictures. Even if you don’t fancy yourself a photographer, it is a good idea to include images now and then in your blog posts to help up the “good-looking” factor.

8.  Do a usability check.

User testing allows you to see how real people navigate your site, while hearing their comments at the same time.  This provides insight into how to improve your site by identifying positive and negative aspects of your site, including features on your site that may be confusing to visitors. You might be surprised what valuable information you receive when you ask for it.

9.  Do cross-browser testing.

Every browser has quirks that display pages slightly differently, so it is always a good idea to look at your blog in different browsers to make sure that it looks the way you want it to.

In conclusion, an eye-catching blog design that compliments your content and showcases your company’s expertise will give your visitors a reason to come back and visit.

Dear Best Web Site Designers: 

We need social media  advice. Our marketing director has banned anyone from using social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, during company time. Since many employees were abusing it and a hacker compromised our company email system; social media is forbidden at our office.  How do I convince our director that social media is important for our company without being fired?

-Anonymous Marketer

 ————————

Social Media Advice  

Not that Ashton Kutcher,  Gary Zuckerberg or Apple’s new iPad are the only living testaments that social media drives profitability, but tens of thousands of companies could not be wrong.  

As safeguarding a company’s technology is necessary for streamlining productivity, most companies cannot afford the downtime that some hackers can inflict upon an entity’s enterprise system. Just think of the magnitude that Google’s 30-minute plus outage caused in 2009. While most managers are not going to sacrifice safety for a marketing whim, social media networking is too paramount to overlook.

Some executives still consider the old school of nurturing relationships to be the primary catalyst for business cultivation. Social media is slowly, but surely replacing traditional advertising and marketing mediums. Open forums, online networking events, market research, sweepstakes, and games typify the interactive characteristics of social media.

An article published by the Harvard Business Review indicated that Intel provides guidelines and stipulations, encouraging their employees to post technology topics pertaining to their department on the Facebook page. Intel is not the only company promoting such social media interaction.

With the right social media design, strategy and security, any organization has the capacity to fortify consumer loyalty. While Best Website Designers cannot provide your manager with a cogent reason to incorporate social media with the rest of the web marketing strategy, the best recommendation is

Hire a web design company to develop the Twitter and Facebook pages. Request that the social media design incorporate all security contingencies.

For professional advice, please click on social media.

Now that Google is giving Facebook higher precedence in  search engine results, it’s a reminder of the dominancy that social media has on Internet marketing. Signaling the need for professional web design on Facebook, the underlying advantages to brandishing a fan-page include the following:

• Make an impression on  prospects
• Initiate the dialogue with the target market
• Conduct your own market research 
• Be organically exposed to major search engine action

In recent news, Google broadcasted new plans to include Facebook’s public status updates among other real-time search results. This proves the benefits of a having a fan page. It further gives credence to presenting the company brand on the world’s most renowned social networking site. 

So what this means for any company using a Facebook page to showcase their products, and services –is sheer Internet exposure. However, ensuring that online visibility requires a recipe of regular:

• Announcements and status updates
• Links to the company Web site
• New photos on the fan wall
• Video uploads

With Google including Facebook’s real time updates, this is only advantageous for the corporation, planning to expose their products and services to a fresh audience. At the same token, it makes the web design of the Facebook page that much more an integral component of the Internet marketing strategy.

In other words, companies that do not jump on the social media networking bandwagon will have to work that much harder to vie for Internet visibility.

Remember your Facebook web design should match the rest of your online marketing materials. That means that the Facebook page should maintain the continuity of the brand. And if your company is trying to target  a special market niche, it’s important to have a separate Facebook page to feature  those other products.  Thinking in the mind of your target audience, the web design of the Facebook page  should outperform  your competition. 

Effective  web design  is not only an awe-inspiring presentation, but it engages the audience.

Maxim: Better web design achieves more face time on Facebook. In the meantime, get social with  The Net Impact on Facebook. or stop in for a visit, by clicking on “website design.“

The web design renovation calls for a rudimentary online strategy. Prior to embarking upon a web design update, remember to coordinate your company’s marketing strategy, internal operations and other benchmarks with the site renovation. Use the following questions and statements to refine the market agenda:

• Define your target market. Based on your organization’s products and services, the core competency reflects the target audience.

• What is the underlying marketing purpose of the company Web site’s design? Effective web design generally inspires an action:

> | > subscribe to a newsletter
> | > request more information
> | > inspire new fans or followers on Facebook or Twitter
> | > conclude sales transaction

• How will the site serve or provide value for the site traffic as in your target audience?

• What sets your products and services apart from the online competitors?

• What are the distinctive characteristics of your site’s Web design?

•  Who will ultimately manage the sites updates? Since, the company Web site is not only an extension  of the marketing strategy, it is an efficacious  marketing tool. Given the popularity of social media networking and microsite,  regular content updates are a vital accessory to the SEO and Internet marketing DNA. 

In order to vie for any online business, maintaining a social media, or company blog is imperative to attracting targeted traffic. Moreover, social media sites and blogs are as mandatory marketing accessories to building awareness.

• How does your organization delegate the responsibility of making site updates? While the IT and marketing departments may not be in sync about security issues and avoiding Web site glitches,  a content management system eradicates these potential outage nightmares. For instance, the Auctori (tm), is customized to accommodate the unique workflow, ease site and page updates, but maintain your site’s branding specifications.

• What web design company can you entrust to deliver all your specifications? Contact The Net Impact