Knit Yourself A Cocktail : 21 Feb
January 31, 2009 at 6:41 pm
If you tick yes to all of the following, then stick 21st Feb in your diary 4-7pm, for that is the date of the 2nd Annual Ladies Tea Party (And Knitting Circle).
- Attending the 2009 Irish Blog Awards in Cork?
- A blogger – one of the female sort?
- A ligger?
Organised by the wonderful Sabrina Dent and kindly sponsored by Curious Wines, iFoods, and Piosa Cake, it looks set to be a nice little pre-event session to get us all in the mood!
You must register. And there are only 30 places. So get on over to the Ladies Tea Party registration spot now and add your name to the list.
Tags: 2009 Irish Blog Awards, Ladies Tea Party
iPhone Version of our Newsletter Launches Today
January 28, 2009 at 8:10 am
We launched a nice little iPhone version of Walking the Talk, our (somewhat) quarterly email newsletter. Many of our readers are super cool iPhone users so we thought we’d be the first in Internet Marketing Ireland company to introduce an iPhone version.
Check it out here http://brightspark-consulting.com/newsletter/m/winter09i.html
Apologies. For some reason Wordpress doesn’t like this link.
Tags: iPhone Email Newsletter, Walking The Talk
3 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Website
January 27, 2009 at 11:56 pm
Continuing in this series of ‘free stuff that you can do online’, this season we’re going back to basics. Before you go marketing your website, you got to first make sure it’s in a fit state to be marketed. That means following these 3 steps to making sure you’ve got a site to be proud of.
1. Website Copy
Google loves frequently changing content. That’s why it’s such a great idea to add a blog to your website and to write in it often. When blogging, you don’t have to write lots – little and often is plenty. All those little blog posts add up and over time, this will significantly help your search engine ranking.
That’s why when you search for “rugby club Dublin” for example, Old Belvedere is the first rugby club in the results. Why? Because they have a vibrant blog in which many members update all the news, results, and updates on the goings on around the club.
Even if you choose not to add a blog to your site, when’s the last time you carried out a thorough review of the static content? Surely your marketing geniuses have come up with new and novel ways of describing your services since the last time the web copy was looked at?
You can either do this yourself, or engage a professional web copywriter to do it for you. We’ll apply a fresh pair of eyes to your content – just like a potential new customer will – and, once we’re clear on what it is you do, we’ll get down to work at conveying that in a succinct and sassy way online. And we’ll do this very fast. Just think you are half a day away from a clever clear site that works as hard as you!
2. Meta Data
While meta data (title tags, description tags, etc.) don’t hold as much weight as they once did, they still have a little role to play. When the Google spider finds your site, you don’t want to leave it all confused and make it go away again. That is why you need to make sure that you’ve got your title and description tags well thought out and in order.
Don’t bother with long lists of keywords for the keywords tag, as none of the search engines really look at that anymore. Title and description tags are the most important. Don’t go putting your company name as the title tag. And worse! If you’ve a title tag of “welcome to our website” do me a favour and lose it now! Think about the keywords that most accurately describe your business and insert them first, then by all means add your company name, and if you wish, your location.
3. Are You Proud of Your Website?
If you’re not, you’re hardly going to be working hard at promoting it. The amount of times I meet people at networking events and they literally cringe when they’re handing me their business card. And that’s before I tell them that I work in the web!
Too many people are still brandishing designs from the last century. Sites that don’t work. That aren’t intuitive. Sites that were developed by people with no love for the web. Sites that still carry a copyright 1999 on them!
If your website design isn’t too bad, consider giving adding some updates. Some newly styled buttons, or links to new applications such as blogs, Flickr, Twitter can give it a lift. Even adding logos of groups you’re a member of can give a little lift. Recently I added logos of all the media sites where Brightspark has been featured, just to freshen up the home page a bit.
If you’re sporting a hideous design, don’t be afraid! It’s likely you had your site built back in the 1900’s – in the days before Wordpress. Back then, even small static sites could cost an arm and a leg. You’re thinking – nope I don’t want to even begin to think of how much they’d cost today… The good news is that Wordpress, apart from being the much loved blogging platform of choice by the world’s leading bloggers, is also a free content management system.
We create many websites for small businesses using Wordpress – you can view a selection here – and the good news is that the cost of production on these beauties has gone down rather than up! Ask me why.
To conclude, these are three ways you can improve the quality of your website for little or no cost. Next week, I’ll be looking at how you can get into more serious internet marketing in Ireland. Techniques that work and that you can put into place yourself.
Whatever you do during these difficult times, don’t stop marketing. Now is not the time to decrease your marketing spend as the following whizzy graphic from Hutch Carpenter clearly demonstrates:
Tags: meta data, website content, website design
Irish Raspberry Awards
January 27, 2009 at 6:40 pm
Just heard about the Irish Raspberry Awards, perhaps the newest kid on the awards block – and let’s face it there are many of them! These awards will celebrate the worst of Irish blogging! Looks like the ‘organiser’, Herr Pixenate, is still liaising with sponsors on the categories, but I would like to add:
- Fanboy of the Year … this goes out to the most consistently gushy, ass-licking blogger in the country. And it could be a girl.
- Most Boring Blog... quite simply, yawn inducing so much that should be bounced off Wordpress or Blogger or whatever tool they use. Many corporate entries for this.
- Longest Delay Between Posts… self explanatory!
- Most Obvious Material Produced Originally For Print … where they almost just add the pdf, but no…
I’d like to extend my heart felt good luck to everyone who’s in the running for a Razzie!
Tags: Irish Raspberry Awards
2009 Web Design Trends
January 26, 2009 at 11:36 pm
It’s perfectly reasonable to talk predictions for the year ahead up to and including 31 January! The best article I’ve read on web design trends for this year comes from the ever smashing Smashing Magazine. I’ve picked the bits I see as most relevant to our market out of here, and have added to it following discussions with some of the key designers on the Brightspark panel. This list is not exhaustive, I’m looking mainly at the design trends that appeal to me for this year:
- Clean corporate
- Vintage, and
- Hand drawn (although it’ll be gone by year end)
Clean Corporate
Everyone’s in agreement that the Web 2.0 design hysteria will finally leave us this year, and I agree with Heidi Jermyn who believes that
the elements that constitute that style will remain. This is because they are tied in to the ideals of accessibility, usability and web standards – and they work!
Clean corporate is so broad and clearly defined that we’ve focused on the particular design features that will constitute the main elements of the ‘clean corporate look’ for 2009.
- Letterpress – has rarely been used to date, but is emerging across a number of different site types and for different content types. It refers to the printing of text onto a ‘raised’ surface.
- PNG Transparency – closely tied to the magazine style, this is where semi transparent images are superimposed onto backgrounds. Good method of making design stand out, but not recommended for all Irish businesses as it’s not IE6 compatible and until IE6 is dead and gone, you can’t be sure that your beautiful design will be viewed as it should. For example, most of Government departments are still using IE6. So check your stats first before going down the transparent png route. Why alienate part of your audience unnecessarily?
- Large typography – we’re seeing font sizes upwards of 36 pixels, and in many cases quite expensive typefaces. Typography is set to be the number 1 design element this year and rightly so, as large interesting fonts make for beautiful designs and clear messages. Ray Doyle of Intrigue says:
- Font replacement – with more of an emphasis on typography, some designers will choose to move away from the classics of Helvetica, Arial, Georgia and Verdana. Font replacement with SIFR can add great beauty, but in our experience SIFR can cause a nightmare during browser testing. We used it here in 2007 and for sites that still have high numbers of IE6 users, I’m not recommending its use again!
- Light boxes – the second generation of pop-up box, widely used and always triggered by a user action (eg. signing up). They always appear on top of the main content and usually appear semi transparent. Example.
- Video content – while strictly content, video blocks are also a design element used to convey lots of info within a relatively small space. Video content should be short and should always carry a different message to the text. Social entrepreneurs use it here.
- Carousels – image slideshows in which the content rotates vertically or horizontally (hence the name “carousel”). To rotate the navigation, users need to click on one of two toggle elements (usually a left/right or up/down arrow). Depending on the toggle element selected, the content is rotated in the desired direction. Definitely recommended for you if you’ve an abundance of striking imagery and video at your disposal, or if your story is really well told visually. Like we did here.
- Introduction blocks – the upper-left area of a website is the most important block on the page, because it grabs the most attention from visitors. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to place the most important message of the website right there and thus make sure that readers get the message as quickly as possible. We’ve been doing this forever, it’s best practice to state who/what/where/when/why in the top of your home page. See Internet Marketing Ireland specialists!
This will be a year for BOLD and energetic! Typography such as “DF Strand” by Rian Highes, “Geometric Soul” by Jason Walcott and “P22 Bifur A” by Richard Kegler. A geometric moderne with decorative variants, part Art Deco glamour, part Modernist architectural lettering and part latest fashion revival. Pop and glam with a heavy punch.
Examples of Clean Corporate Style
Vintage
Vintage, old school patterns are timeless and look set to be very popular in this coming. In the bright shiny new medium of web, they haven’t been used much to date, but now we’re seeing them used on corporate sites, online shops, and blogs.
Successful vintage design features images and fonts that were popular in the time period they are meant to represent. Vintage recalls the time period between the 1950s and 1980s. Vintage can often be combined with the hand drawn style (see below).
Ray’s looking at:
A geometric moderne with decorative variants, part Deco glamour, part Modernist architectural lettering and part latest fashion revival. Pop and glam with a heavy punch.
Examples of Vintage Style Designs
Please note that the examples above of vintage are a little busy in my opinion and feature too much yellowing/brown colours. But I’ve included them for their images and motifs and for indicative purposes only. If you know any good examples of non yellowing looking ones, please let me know.
Hand Drawn Style
This is one I associate with Heidi, she was experimenting with this as far back as 2006. Matt’s Endless Bender is one she did at the end of last year. Hand drawn (or scrapbook) style features hand drawn elements, torn edges and the odd coffee stain and are usually highly personalised and a little whimsical. Not really suited to corporates, this style will be very popular for anyone marketing to the youth market, as well as personal blogs. They will die off later this year as they will come to be seen as ‘very 2008’.
Examples of Hand Drawn Style
You can read more from the smashing Smashing Magazine here.
Tags: Smashing Magazine, Web design trends 2009
Facebook Page or Facebook Group?
January 26, 2009 at 3:02 pm
So you’re thinking of establishing more of a presence for your brand or business on Facebook using a Facebook Page or a Group? I really like what Seni Thomas says in this post, about making Pages more than just another branded product space. Read this first, then have a glance through my summary thoughts below:
Pro’s of Facebook Pages
- Search engine friendly. They get indexed and are therefore available to everyone on the web, not just Facebook members.
- Can add a much wider variety of media, including video, pics, as well as the usual discussion forum, wall, etc.
- Facebook want you to use these so they give you nice tools for measuring traffic (once you’ve got more than 10 fans).
Con’s of Facebook Pages
- Activity of fans (which is what your page members are called) is less visible than group activity. It doesn’t show up in the feeds… but it does show the logo and the link and says “I’m A Fan Of…” in the person’s personal profile.
- You can’t bulk message fans.
- Psychological reason – I’ve been reading a lot of the forums on this and many people say that they find the word ‘fan’ a little strong. They want to show they support something, it seems to be more acceptable to say you’re a ‘member’ of a group than a fan of something.
Facebook Groups
Facebook groups can be created by anyone. You can include a display picture, description, contact information, photos and videos, a discussion board and a wall.
Pro’s of Facebook Groups
- Can bulk message (up to 1,200) members and the communication goes straight to the inbox.
- Because groups have an email address, it allows for two-way flow of communication – from your members to you as well as bulk messages out.
- All activity goes out in the feeds which makes it very viral.
- When joining a group, it’s got a ‘tick the friends you want to tell’ feature which I think makes it very viral. Pages only have a pop up box that’s open ended which doesn’t work as well.
Con’s of Facebook Groups
- There’s minimum opportunity for customisation. You can’t add apps. So groups can sometimes look and feel a little dull.
- Groups are only visible to Facebook members.
Whichever option you choose, be prepared to spend a lot of time working the content to make sure that the space you create isn’t dull. Think about it – if you click on a group or page and the last bit of activity was a post on the wall back in February 2008, then you’re not likely to stick around! It takes time, planning, and diligence to work compelling content into your Facebook campaign. You’ve got to work hard to encourage people to interact with the features.
Overall in my opinion, in most cases there’s no harm in having in both. I think groups are more viral because they’re more visible in feeds, so they’re good for getting the numbers and for quick sign ups. Pages are better for long term profiling of your business on Facebook. They can carry more design elements and so give a better visual representation of your business.
Tags: facebook group, Facebook page
Ending the week on a high
January 23, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Despite the shitty news of yesterday, this week is ending on a high – and not just for me.
Am back in the country a full week and have already won a new client! A nice little project that I’ll be sharing on here as soon as it’s in motion. But it’s a brand that Irish people know and love, and a very good cause. Update as of 4.57pm: just won another one, that’s 2 in one week! Recession my ass!
Also delighted to announce the launch of a new site for Daisyhouse. They are the charity that Brightspark likes to help out (have you got one?) and the new site is very smart! It’s got an online referral form to streamline the previously cumbersome paper process. They share some great stories about people they’ve helped. And some novel ways that you can help. Go on! Click that link – I promise you there are ways you can help that won’t cost you any money!
I’d also like to congratulate the Contrast boys whose nifty app Qwitter got a mention on CNN - no less!
Finally here’s what happened in Liverpool Street Station around this time last week. Flashmob goes dancing – watch it right through, it’ll make you feel all loved up with how great it is when humans get together and let their hair down… even stuck ones who work in the City!
So all in all, not a bad first week back for web site development, interesting apps, and delicious new clients.
Tags: Daisyhouse, Qwitter
Where would you like to wake up tomorrow?
January 21, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Stumbled across this lovely site that reminds me of a video twist on Twitter. Where Twitter poses a question (what are you doing now?), this site also poses a question but goes out on the streets of Brooklyn and London and films people’s responses.
It’s lovely to listen to people’s responses. It’s very well produced video. It’s warm and funny and human and given that this week started off with the statistically calculated worst day of the year, it’s worth checking out.
Tags: Fifty People One Question
Irish Blog Awards Nominations
January 21, 2009 at 10:53 am
The full list of nominations to this year’s awards are out – now the organisers will begin the process of sifting and sorting. I must say, there’s a bucketload of really great Irish blogs out there. Are they related but has the quality improved markedly since the establishment of the blog awards in 2007?
This blog is in the Best Blog of a Business category – amidst the usual stiff competition. And I”m delighted to see one of my adored clients Kanchi is in the Best Newcomer category.
View the full list of nominees (ie. not long list) here.
Tags: Irish Blog Awards, Irish Raspberry Awards
When online copywriting isn’t enough
January 20, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I’m an online copywriter. I love writing content for web; taking huge swathes of multi-syllabic, long sentences written in the passive voice and converting it to something short and punchy. When I’m not writing content for web, I teach others how to do it. It’s not rocket science. If you can write, it’s just like learning to surf – wonderfully exhilerating once you know how!
But sometimes web copywriting isn’t enough.
Recently I was introduced to a company that needed help with the copy for its marketing materials – both online and print. I was called in to help. And boy could I help! Because I am that rare and unique being (in this market at least) who also wears another hat – that of Marketing.
Long before I got into copywriting, I learned everything I know about marketing. This was before Internet Marketing had evolved (yes kids… I am that old!). Since I’ve been working in Internet Marketing since 1999 (a whole decade!) I’ve evolved with it as new techniques and ideas evolve. So when I was called out to this new client who needed a copywriter, it turned out that I could give them more, much more.
They already had asked two other copywriters to work on some content for them, and they just weren’t happy with what they’d got. I’m sure the others did a good job, but they were copywriting messages that they were provided by the client. What the client needed was someone to help them craft those messages in the first place. And this is what I did.
And so when we had identified the benefits and the key messages, then I got around to crafting the copy. We got the brochures done first and now we’re moving on to the website. Soon we’ll be introducing email marketing, and are looking to get high results on search.
The result?
One happy client who is getting the kind of results he wants. And for me, it’s all good – business that’s interesting and worthwhile and pays on time.
[Another good news story for January brought to you by Brightspark!]
