“What is the ROI of Social Media?

and

“How do I measure the ROI of social media?”

And these are great questions that companies should be asking.

Unfortunately, there is no one answer. While we can certainly obtain some metrics through tools like Twitter Search and Google Analytics, some of social media ... read more]]> Kinesis clients are asking the big questions:

“What is the ROI of Social Media?

and

“How do I measure the ROI of social media?”

And these are great questions that companies should be asking.

Unfortunately, there is no one answer. While we can certainly obtain some metrics through tools like Twitter Search and Google Analytics, some of social media is simply about building goodwill and nurturing relationships. Like the good old-fashioned golf game and the “Let’s Do Lunch” strategy, people like connecting with people.

That said, to start determining your ROI on social media, you must know your baseline and define your goals. (from Mashable): “As a standard formula, ROI is pretty basic, ROI = (X – Y) / Y, where X is your final value and Y is your starting value. In other words, if you invest $5 and get back $20, your ROI is (20 – 5) / 5 = 3 times your initial investment. In the financial sense, ROI is measured purely in the context of dollars and cents, however, the principles can really apply to any type of investment — monetary or not.”

“Having concrete goals and concrete baselines is crucial to calculating your return on investment. So before you set out to measure and monitor your social media returns, you need to have a clear idea of what it is you want to accomplish.”

“Once you have your goals defined, you need to gauge the baseline for your levels before starting or changing your social media strategy. For example, if your goal is to increase social media mentions of your company, in order to measure the ROI of any actions taken toward that goal, you need to know where you stand now. You can’t evaluate the ROI accurately without a baseline.”

“Although ROI ≠ metrics, traditional web metrics like traffic counts, number of comments, Twitter followers, Facebook fans, etc. are an important component when calculating your ROI.”

“The trick is to not rely solely on the numbers, but on what the numbers end up leading to. For instance, does your increase in website visitors correlate with higher sales? Are people that find your website from Twitter or Facebook then clicking on your product pages or going to the e-Commerce section of your site? That’s the sort of data you want to be able to look for.”

Erik Qualman of Socialnomics has put together another fabulous video that breaks down the staggering numbers of social media into an absorbent format. (See our post, The Social Media Revolution, for his first video.)

Social Media ROI

Click here to view the embedded video.

Erik writes,

While the video uses familiar nomenclature like ROI, many pieces of social media behave so differently than anything we have ever seen, that I prefer to use “What does or will success look like?” rather than “What’s the ROI?” After all, why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel?  Social media touches every facet of business and it should be viewed more as an extension of good business ethics.  Which, if done properly, will harvest sales down the line.

Social Media ROI Statistics

Here are some key statistics pulled from the ROI of Social Media Video:

1.  Over 300,000 businesses have a presence on Facebook and roughly a 1/3 of these are small businesses.

2.  Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family business from $4 million to $50 million using social media.

3.  Vaynerchuk found first hand that $15,000 in Direct Mail = 200 new customers, $7,500 Billboard = 300 new customers, $0 Twitter = 1,800 new customers.

4.  Lenovo was able to achieve cost savings by a 20% reduction in call center activity as customers go to community website for answers.

5.  Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice Facebook program incented users to give up ten of their Facebook friends in return for a free Whopper.  The estimated investment for this program was less than $50,000 yet they received 32 million media impressions which roughly estimated equals greater than $400,000 in press/media value.  Which to put in context is somewhat like reaching the entire populations of 19 states (understanding this doesn’t account for unique vs. repeat visitors, etc.)

6.  BlendTec increased its sales 5x by running the often humorous “Will it Blend” Videos on YouTube blending everything from an iPhone to a sneaker.

7.  Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter.

8.  Naked Pizza, a New Orleans Pizzeria that specializes in healthy pies, set a one day sales record using social media.  In fact 68% of their sales came from people “calling in from Twitter.”  And 85% of their new customers were from Twitter.  So, yes, social media does work for small businesses.

9.  Tweets for a Cause sent out a tweet from Atlanta to encourage support of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  As a result of retweets, the Atlanta Chapter site received 11,000 visitors in 24 hours as a result of this initiative by ResponseMine Interactive.

10.  Intuit introduced “Live Community” into their TurboTax® products 2 years ago.  Due in part to the resulting word-of-mouth, they have seen unit sales increase +30% each year and have now integrated “Live Community” into their other products like QuickBooks, Quicken, etc.

11.  Software company Genius.com reports that 24% of its social media leads convert to sales opportunities.

12.  During Barack Obama’s rise to the White House, he garnered 5 million fans on social media and 5.4 million clicked on an “I voted for Obama” Facebook button.  Most importantly this resulted in three million online donors contributing $500 million in fundraising. An astounding 92% of the donations were in increments of less than $100.

13.  The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center witnessed a 9.5% increase in registrations by using social media.

14.  Web host provider Moonfruit more than recouped its $15,000 social media investment as their Website Traffic soared +300% while correspondingly sales increased +20%.

15.  eBay found that participants in online communities spend 54% more money.

16.  71% of companies plan to increase investments in social media by an average of 40% because: a) Low Cost Marketing b) Getting Traction c) We Have To Do It.

Supporting articles:

Lee Oden, “Book Review: Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk,” Online Marketing Blog

Jan M. Rosen, “Be It Twittering or Blogging, It’s All About Marketing,” New York Times, 3/11/2009

Jon Swartz,  “More marketers use social networking to reach customers,” USA Today,  8/28/09

Let’s talk about your company’s social media strategy. Small investments in Internet Marketing lead to big ROI (as you can see): 503-922-2289

There are some companies that target seniors and Baby Boomers, but are still resisting an interactive online presence and participating in social media.

They may think, “Well my clients are mostly over 60 so they’re not very tech savvy.” Or, “Social media is for kids. My clients are older – they don’t use that stuff.”

However, this ... read more]]>

There are some companies that target seniors and Baby Boomers, but are still resisting an interactive online presence and participating in social media.

They may think, “Well my clients are mostly over 60 so they’re not very tech savvy.” Or, “Social media is for kids. My clients are older – they don’t use that stuff.”

However, this is a misperception. While there are still many Baby Boomers and seniors who are not using the Internet as voraciously as Generation Y, the numbers may surprise you.

Seniors Online

Individuals 65 and older still make up less than 10 percent of the active Internet universe. However, their numbers are on the rise. In the last five years, the number of seniors actively using the Internet has increased by more than 55 percent, from 11.3 million active users in November 2004 to 17.5 million in November 2009. Among people 65+, the growth of women online in the last five years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points.

The largest percentage increase in Internet use since 2005 has been in the 70-to-75 age group, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The survey found that 45 percent of that age bracket is online, compared with 26 percent in 2005. Researching health information is the third most popular online activity with the most senior age group, after email and online search.

What’s more, many seniors find social networking exciting and enjoy finding online community. They’re creating their own blogs and, more often, connecting with family and friends by joining Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

“Social media are giving seniors a voice, and for a generation that has sometimes felt isolated and overlooked, that’s no small feat,” said Sarah Hoit, chief executive of My Way Village, which designs online social networks for older adults.

The No. 1 online destination for people over 65 in November 2009 was Google Search, with 10.3 million unique visitors. Windows Media Player and Facebook were No. 2 and No. 3, with 8.2 million and 7.9 million visitors, respectively. Interestingly, Facebook, which came in at No. 3, ranked No. 45 just a year ago among sites visited by senior citizens.

The trend has caught the attention of senior-living communities that have begun to introduce social media to residents. People who grew up with vacuum-tube radio sets are now learning how to befriend grandchildren and old classmates on Facebook and Classmates.com.

Retirement communities are also launching their own Facebook pages and posting videos on YouTube to appeal to the Boomer children of current or prospective residents. For example, Edgemere Senior Living has a Facebook page. Fan pages like this often include dozens of photos of recent activities at the communities. Visitors to the page can become “fans” and post comments. There are entire social networking sites devoted just to seniors such as the Over 60 Exchange, as well as dedicated website areas of organizations like the AARP that has added a forum called Online Communities.

Baby Boomers Online

Baby Boomers are a much bigger force on the Web. The research group, eMarketer, estimates that in 2009 Internet users ages 45 to 63 make up 28.8% of the total online population, or 57.4 million users.

A new report from Forrester Research also reveals some information that may be different than you thought: More than 60 percent of those in the Baby Boomer generational group actively consume socially created content like blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums. What’s more, the percentage of those participating is on the rise.

In 2007, the percentage of Boomers consuming social media was 46% for younger Boomers (ages 43 to 52) and 39% for older Boomers (ages 53 to 63). By 2008, those number increased to 67% and 62%, respectively.

The number of Boomers responding to content posted online, as opposed to just passively consuming it, is also going up. For example, the proportion of older Boomers responding to content doubled from 15% in 2007 to 34% in 2008. According to Forrester, this is now a percentage that’s high enough to target this group with a social application.

Here are some relevant statistics from eMarketer that you should know about the baby boomer generation:

• 74% use the Internet at least once a month
• younger Boomers outnumber older Boomers online 35.3 million to 21.4 million
• more Boomer women are Internet users than Boomer men
• 62% of households headed by someone age 50 or older had annual incomes of $75,000 or more, nearly 5% higher than in 2004
• 68% of Baby Boomer women trust online recommendations and rated information they heard in online conversations as credible

What do all of these numbers mean to you and your company? They mean that even if your target audience is Baby Boomers and/or seniors, you cannot ignore Internet marketing. You must ensure that your Web site is keeping pace with the trends, and that you should have a social media strategy in place including a blog and Facebook page, at the very least. And a Twitter and YouTube presence would also be beneficial to reaching your prospects.

You used to have to futz with the date or ... read more]]> A Sticky Post in WordPress is one that “sticks” to the top of your blog on the first page. Other posts will always appear below a sticky post. This is extremely useful if you want to have a post that has an introduction or an announcement.

You used to have to futz with the date or add WP-Sticky plug-in. As of WordPress 2.7, the Sticky Post feature is built right in – how lovely!

And it is very easy to use. On the right sidebar (just to the right of the post you are creating), there is a block called Publish. The second section of Publish is Visibility. Click on the Edit link:

Once you click on the Edit link, you’ll want to check the box “Stick this post to the front page.”

Then click the Publish (or Update Post) button.

Voila! Your post is now Sticky! When you are tired of your sticky post, simply uncheck the box and hit Save. Your post will go back to live in its chronological order.

Fantasticky!!!

Kinesis is a Portland Web Design and Branding Firm. We help our clients reach their marketing and growth goals. Call us at 503.922.2289.

]]> http://www.kinesisinc.com/marketing/how-to-make-a-post-sticky-in-your-wordpress-blog/feed/ 0 http://www.kinesisinc.com/marketing/social-media-marketing-for-business/ http://www.kinesisinc.com/marketing/social-media-marketing-for-business/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:04:57 +0000 Wendy http://kinesisblog.com/?p=503 It’s time to rethink your marketing strategy to include social media as part of your toolkit.

Because the rules have changed – a LOT.

Let’s go back…oh, let’s say about 5 years or so.

And in this not-so-distant past, a company could simply call the newspaper or the radio and just run a few ads to get more ... read more]]> It’s time to rethink your marketing strategy to include social media as part of your toolkit.

Because the rules have changed – a LOT.

Let’s go back…oh, let’s say about 5 years or so.

And in this not-so-distant past, a company could simply call the newspaper or the radio and just run a few ads to get more business. Basically, you used to be able to spend your dollars to buy more audience. The more you spent, the more customers you would get. That’s why the big businesses stayed big.

But NOW, this throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach doesn’t work.

Because NOW, there’s Facebook and ezines and SEO and mobile and viral videos and applications and Twitter…and …and…and…

The way that our customers are looking for information is changing rapidly.

Therefore, marketing via social media is essential if you want your company to stay up with the trends.

Because today, people want to get excited. They want to engage in dialogues with the companies that they support. So, to thrive and grow you must use social media to create exciting ideas and to stimulate conversations and to build online brands with which people have passionate love affairs.

This is a really exciting shift for most companies and organizations. Because new marketing and social media has so many opportunities for small- to mid-sized business to get themselves KNOWN.

Social media allows every business to leverage huge numbers of people by creating online community and generating excitement around its brand.

If you are not using social media, then begin now. Because people are flocking to these online venues in huge numbers. And your business should be marketing itself where your prospects are spending time.

Below is a presentation that I gave recently to a group of marketing professionals explaining more about the power of social media (you can also click here to go to the presentation on SlideShare). I hope it gives you some ideas about ways you can take your brand to the next level:

Online Marketing: Employers Using Social Media to Screen and Report

10 Surprising Ways that Twitter Has Helped My Business…and Ideas On How it Can Help Yours Too

read more]]> Many businesses are still wondering about why they should care about social media.I’ve addressed this in a few recent posts that you might be interested in reading:

Online Marketing: Employers Using Social Media to Screen and Report

10 Surprising Ways that Twitter Has Helped My Business…and Ideas On How it Can Help Yours Too

Small and Medium Businesses Are Not Using Web 2.0 for Marketing (Here’s Why They Should!)

Recent reports from the Nielson Company give more compelling reasons. According to Nielson, social networks and blogs are grabbing a bigger share of the Net. Stats show that Americans have nearly tripled the amount of time they spend at social networking and blog sites such as Facebook and MySpace from a year ago.

In August 2009, 17 percent of all time spent on the Internet was at social networking sites, up from 6 percent in August 2008. Advertising spending on social networking sites and blogs more than doubled despite the recession, going from about $49 million in August 2008 to about $108 million in August 2009.

Nielsen VP John Gibs says that “advertisers that want to connect with core fan bases, such as movie studios, are allocating more and more dollars to online communities like Facebook and MySpace, where they can engage in an ongoing dialog with their target market.”

And a LOT of people are spending at least a bit of time on social networking sites. Consumers are deeply engaged with them. Nielsen’s data shows that about half of the U.S. population visited a social networking website in the last year and that number grows every quarter.

Here are some interesting trends in how the big social media sites break out demographically (and which will affect your choices in how you leverage these sites for your marketing efforts):

• Facebook users have a largely upscale profile. The top third of lifestyle segments relative to affluence were 25% more likely to use Facebook than those in the those in the lower third.
• The bottom third segments related to affluence are 37% more likely to use MySpace than those in the top third.
• Users of Facebook were also much more likely to use LinkedIn, a network geared towards business and professional networking, than those who use MySpace.
• The blogging and tweeting community at large isn’t necessarily more affluent, but bloggers and tweeters do live in more urban areas such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago.

Let’s look at one more report from Nielsen. This one relates to traditional advertising. U.S. ad spending fell 15.4% in the first half of 2009, according to data released today by The Nielsen Company. A total of $56.9 billion was spent on advertising in the first six months of the year, more than $10.3 billion less than the same time period in 2008.

So, traditional ad dollars fell while social media ad dollars more than doubled. The big players are shifting the ad dollars because they are following the trends that consumers are setting. Mashable has a  great article listing some fantastic case studies citing examples of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media.

If you aren’t on the social media bandwagon yet, it’s time to hop aboard.

If you need help planning and implementing your social media campaign, call Kinesis for a free initial consultation at 503-922-2289.

Kinesis is a Portland Web Design and Branding Firm. We help our clients reach their marketing and growth goals. Call us at 503.922.2289.

More and more companies are using social media. And there is only one reason – because it works.

According to a recent article in Portland’s Business Journal,

Increasingly, businesses are using Twitter, Facebook and other online tools to build brand awareness, cultivate customer loyalty and sell products.

Eighty-five percent of all U.S. consumers will read or ... read more]]>

More and more companies are using social media. And there is only one reason – because it works.

According to a recent article in Portland’s Business Journal,

Increasingly, businesses are using Twitter, Facebook and other online tools to build brand awareness, cultivate customer loyalty and sell products.

Eighty-five percent of all U.S. consumers will read or view social content by the end of 2009, according to Forrester Research. Jupiter Research found that 46 percent of small-business decision makers use social media each month to make a purchasing decision.

Take a minute to click on the link and read the article – there are some great case studies of the ways in which companies are using social media to connect, survey, observe, interact, and promote.

I have to admit – I was on Facebook and LinkedIn, but I started out as a Twitter doubter. Twits and Tweets and Tweeps just all sounded so…well…stupid.

But, like a good little online marketer, I jumped in and set up an account (@WendyMaynard) since I figured I had better know how the heck to Tweet so I could explain it to my clients. This was probably back in January.

And Twitter is very weird when you first begin to use it. It really is. You just jump into this ongoing river of thoughts that have no seeming rhyme or reason. And then you try to figure out what to say…and when to say it…and who to say it to…

But I quickly learned how to join the Twitter party (that’s what it reminds of most – a cocktail party with lots of smart people). And now I have over 3,600 followers and many new connections. Are you on Twitter already? Tweet me: @WendyMaynard

As you can see, I have become a Twitter believer…perhaps even a Twitter evangelist. Once you learn how to use it strategically, it is an amazing tool. And I think that every business can benefit from using social media for a variety of different purposes.

Many people begin with Twitter expecting to use it specifically as a tool to get new business. And, while that is one of the things that Twitter can do for you, I’ve discovered many other benefits of the tool. In fact, there have been a lot of things that have happened to me as a result of being on Twitter that I didn’t expect.

So, I created a list of Surprising Ways that Twitter Has Helped My Business:

1 ) New Friendships: I’ve made some wonderful new friends on Twitter who are inspiring entrepreneurs and amazing bloggers. They have given me ideas and valuable support.

2 ) Relationships with Peers: I’ve been able to make connections with other owners of design firms and they have been very helpful with my insider questions.

3 ) Software Reviews: When working on a marketing campaign for a client, I often need a specific software or analysis tool. In response to my Tweets about this, I’ve gotten almost instantaneous feedback to questions about what works best online for specific purposes.

4 ) WordPress Plugin Recommendations: WordPress blogs have thousands of plugins that allow bloggers to perform almost any task imaginable. Both in adding functionality to the Kinesis Blog and setting up blogs for clients, I have been able to get recommendations from “Tweeps” on the perfect plugin for the job.

5 ) Help for Writer’s Block: I’ve shot out a Tweet when struggling with a synonym for a word or phrase while writing marketing copy. Within minutes, I have a dozen different ways to say it better.

6 ) Unsolicited Testimonials: I’ve had a number of incredibly generous people give testimonials about me as a marketing strategist. I’ve cached these in my Twitter Favorites in case I want to refer a prospect to them.

7 ) Connections With People in The Same Industry as My Clients: I’ve made a number of Twitter connections with people who are in the same industry but a different geographical location as my clients. This has proved to be invaluable to learn more about their marketing tricks and techniques (Have I mentioned how generous people on Twitter tend to be?)

8 ) Connections With People Who Represent My Clients’ Target Audience: I’ve also made some connections with people who are in the industries that my clients target. This has been downright amazing. It’s like a Twitter focus group that I can run in seconds. I can ask these individuals questions about their preferences and bring this info back to my clients to help sharpen their marketing efforts.

9 ) Connections with People Looking for Speakers: I speak on social media and online marketing both live and via teleseminars. I have received several invitations as a direct result of being on Twitter – great exposure! I’ve also learned of several opportunities that I have submitted ideas to as a potential speaker (I don’t know the results of these yet since they are in 2010), but I wouldn’t have known about them other than folks on Twitter.

10 ) Increased Traffic to My Blog: I have developed a loyal group of Twitter followers who are interested in what I have to say (thank you, Tweeps, for your support). I send out several Tweets when I have completed a blog post and I always see a spike in blog traffic from Twitter as a result. I also get insightful comments from these folks.

I could go on, but I thought it would be fun to quote some other Twitterers on how it’s helped them:

Quotes about Twitter:

From ProBlogger Darren Rowse:

If you own a business of any size and you’re still not Twittering, you’re missing out on what amounts to a worldwide virtual chamber of commerce networking event that’s at your fingertips 24/7. Only on Twitter, you don’t press flesh or swap business cards—you exchange links to your Web site, blog, e-books, and online résumé. And you build relationships 140 characters at a time.

From Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch

(1) I get great insight when I ask questions, (2) let’s face it, I get traffic and (3) people on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.

From Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh

We’ve found that Twitter has been a great way for us to connect on a more personal level with our employees and customers. We use it to help build our brand, not drive direct sales. It’d be like asking how does providing a telephone number for customer service translate into new business when they are mostly non-sales-related calls. In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.

From BreakingPoint VP of Marketing Pam O’Neil

Twitter has all but replaced our PR agency as a large percentage of our followers are press and analysts. A writer for ZDNet wrote about us and linked to us based on something we tweeted and that resulted in a huge spike in web traffic and at least one deal with a major service provider.

From Dosh Dosh blogger, Maki (taken from his list of ways Twitter Can Grow Your Business)

1. Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.

2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.

3. Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.

4. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.

5. Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.

So now you have many new ways to use Twitter. If you found this article useful, feel free to share it with your Twitter friends.

I’d love to hear your comments and feedback. I would also love to know the ways you are using Twitter to help your business (were any surprising to you)?

I’m the person at Kinesis who typically optimizes the websites for our clients.

So, accordingly, I have a lot of opinions on SEO. There are too many “snake-oil” salespeople who are using outdated or incorrect optimization methods. And some so-called SEO companies are optimizing their clients’ websites using techniques that are unappealing to ... read more]]>

I’m the person at Kinesis who typically optimizes the websites for our clients.

So, accordingly, I have a lot of opinions on SEO. There are too many “snake-oil” salespeople who are using outdated or incorrect optimization methods. And some so-called SEO companies are optimizing their clients’ websites using techniques that are unappealing to the visitors of the website – always a bad idea.

Every page on your site must appeal to your prospects and clients first. And search engines come second. Remember this principle when a company comes to you yammering about SEO and how they will get you first page ranking.

Your goal should not just be about getting a high quantity of traffic – this does you no good if you have no potential customers. The point of your website is to act as a sales tool, right? Therefore, it is far, far better to get fewer visitors to your site who are highly qualified, responsive prospects. These are the people who will actually hire your company.

Now let’s take a look at Meta Tags. This is one of the ways that the shysters will tell you they can optimize your site. I’ve created a video to help you see what I’m writing about.

Click here to view the embedded video.

MYTH: SEO is all about Meta Tags. Load a bunch of these magical meta tags into the code of your web pages and you’ll rocket to the top of the search engines.

TRUTH: Uh…no. Meta Tags are not the magic bullet to getting ranked well. They are valuable for giving some control over how the search engines describe a web page – but even this isn’t a given. Meta Tags are a component of your overall SEO strategy but they are a very small component compared to the content that is actually written on your site.

First of all, what is a Meta Tag? These tags are bits of information that is inserted into the <HEAD> area of your website. If you look at the code of a web page, here’s how meta tags appear:

<HEAD>
<TITLE>How to Groom Your Poodle, Dog Grooming Techniques<HEAD>
<META NAME=”description” content=”Tips and techniques to groom your poodle dog so it looks like a champion Best in Show”>
<META NAME=”keywords” content=”dogs, poodle, groom, grooming, show, tips, techniques, dog show”>
</HEAD>

The Title Tag isn’t really a Meta Tag, but this is the most important piece of the data in the <HEAD> area. The text you use in the Title Tag will appear at the top of a person’s browser window. It will also guide the search engines on how to rank your web page.

If you do nothing else as a result of this post, make sure all of your web pages have titles that are relevant to the content on each page. Use a few words that describe the page. You’ll see that I did that in my poodle grooming example above. On each page, change the Title Tag to describe what is on the page.

If geographical location is important to your business then definitely include it in your Title Tags. If you look at the Kinesis website, we get a large portion of our clients from Portland, Oregon. So, I’ve plugged that into the titles. By doing this, our website gets ranked very highly when people search for terms such as Portland web design and Portland graphic design.

Just putting relevant titles on all of your pages will put you ahead of at least 50% of your competitors.

The Meta Description Tag allows you to describe the content of your page. This influences the way that the search engines list your description…maybe. Lately, Google has been listing content from the page in addition to or instead of the description tag. But, for now, it’s worth plugging in to your Meta Tags.

The Meta Keywords Tag is no longer being used by Google because of its abuse by certain programmers, but Yahoo does suggest that they are still using them (although the company does not say how much weight they are giving them for rankings).  So it’s pretty easy to include keywords. It may be worth your time since search engine ranking research shows 64% of users conduct their searches using Google and 20% search using Yahoo. From there, 8% use Microsoft sites, 3.8% use Ask, and 3.4% use AOL.

If you have questions, please ask me in the comments section below. And, of course, Kinesis can help you optimize your website. Contact us for more details.

Comic Sans: the typeface that designers love to hate. So what’s the story behind this pervasive font? Why exactly do so many people love it, while others hate it? I came across a student-filmed documentary that asked the same question.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Comic Sans Documentary

Digging ... read more]]>

Comic Sans: the typeface that designers love to hate. So what’s the story behind this pervasive font? Why exactly do so many people love it, while others hate it? I came across a student-filmed documentary that asked the same question.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Comic Sans Documentary

Digging a little deeper, I found out that it all started with Rover, the talking yellow dog from the program Microsoft Bob. Look familiar? With the flop of Microsoft Bob, an attempt at an early user-friendly interface for Windows, Rover now currently resides in the search function for Windows XP.

According to the font’s designer, Vincent Connare:

Comic Sans was designed because when I was working at Microsoft I received a beta version of Microsoft Bob. It was a comic software package that had a dog called Rover at the beginning and he had a balloon with messages using Times New Roman.

Comic Sans was NOT designed as a typeface but as a solution to a problem with the often overlooked part of a computer program’s interface, the typeface used to communicate the message.

There was no intention to include the font in other applications other than those designed for children when I designed Comic Sans. The inspiration came at the shock of seeing Times New Roman used in an inappropriate way.

While there was no intention to include the font in other applications…included it was. After being picked up by MS Movie Maker, a similar application using cartoon characters, it eventually landed onto the list of system fonts for Windows 95. From then, there was no stopping it.

Since that day it has shown up in countless forms it was never intended for and has immersed the market with badly designed logos, signage, flyers, college exams, medical forms…you name it. It has gotten so bad that Indianapolis graphic designers Dave and Holly Combs have erected a website that’s prime objective is to ban comic sans altogether by collecting names on an online petition.

www.bancomicsans.com

While I find this endeavor a little extreme, I do think it’s good to at least know the background of the font and to realize that it had a specific purpose when it was created…to be used in a comic/cartoon environment. Nothing more. **Here is a good example of Comic Sans being used in a successful application.

The font, set in all caps, is used to its fullest potential in this Prince Valiant comic strip. It feels natural in this comic setting because that’s how the font was created and intended to be used. It is not pretending to be something it’s not.**

**It was pointed out to me (by Stephen Coles) that the above comic strip was in fact NOT set in Comic Sans. Thank you Stephen for the correction! Unfortunately, this was the best example I could come up with after hours of searching the web. I wanted to be fair to those Comic Sans lovers out there to show how this comic-styled font could be used well. It looks like even the comic community has rejected poor Comic Sans. Well, can’t say I didn’t try!**

Below is an example of Comic Sans being used in the wrong application. This pic was snapped with my camera phone while on my walk to work one morning in NW Portland. What a beauty!

The combination of “ABC” and the use of this fun, child-like font is more reminiscent of a child’s daycare company than an electric company. If the word “electric” was not present, I would have the entirely wrong impression that this company was somehow kid-oriented. This brand is not a good representation of the company.

Often times an office manager is tasked with creating a company’s identity using the tools they have readily available (e.g., Microsoft Word or Publisher). However, just because Comic Sans is a Windows system font that is easily accessible does not mean that it’s the best choice. When done right, a lot of time and effort should go into the exploration of logo typography…it’s not a matter of reaching for just what’s at your fingertips.

Readability is key. The logo type needs to be readable across multiple applications. It should be as legible in smaller applications like newspaper ads or business cards as it is in larger ones like vehicle signage or tradeshow banners. Logo typography also needs to stand the test of web readability for those that appear online. People should not have to squint to make out the name of your company.

Nurture the relationship. If the logo contains both a symbol AND typography, the type must play nice in relationship to its symbolic counterpart. The style of the font should compliment the symbol so that the two elements successfully get the company’s image across to its audience. They need to be partners in their objective, thus the feeling or impression of both should coincide.

Allow breathing room. The shape of typography character forms and the spacing between them is also important to consider. Some fonts, described as display fonts, are created specifically to be used for large applications. These fonts are generally spaced more closely together, creating a tighter fit between letters. This creates word-shapes that are easier to read at larger scales. The opposite is true with fonts specified as text fonts. These are spaced more openly, with more space between letters, to help distinguish each character from the other, helping with readability at small scales.  When choosing logo typography, it is important to choose a font with letter-spacing that compliments the logo…one that creates even visual texture. White space is not to be ignored.

Many factors come into play when choosing logo typography. And luckily, we’re not forced to use only the system fonts that come already installed on our computers. There are, in fact, thousands of amazing fonts that exist online. Websites like MyFonts.com, Veer.com and FontShop.com have an enormous selection of inexpensive fonts, ripe for the picking. You can purchase and download these fonts directly onto your computer in the matter of minutes! You’ll have a brand new font that may serve as a better option than one your system fonts.

So the next time you think about using Comic Sans in the next inter-departmental flyer for your upcoming company picnic or as a logo for your cousin’s new dog-walking business, remember the original intent of the comic-styled font and please…think again. There are many other, possibly even better, choices out there.

A blog (which stands for web log) is a marketing tool that can further position your company as the expert in your industry. Your prospects and clients want information about your products and services. They are hungry for it! And a blog gives you the opportunity ... read more]]> Are you missing out on the power of a blog?

A blog (which stands for web log) is a marketing tool that can further position your company as the expert in your industry. Your prospects and clients want information about your products and services. They are hungry for it! And a blog gives you the opportunity to share your expertise with people across the globe.

Once they are designed (contact Kinesis for more info about our blog design and Web 2.0 consulting services), blogs are easy for you to update. The typical blog entry is short and informal, making it easy for you to write – and easy for your customers to read.

Because blogs are filled with a bunch of little blurbs, your readers are more likely to visit on a regular basis to read your latest commentaries. Blogs also feature a search function, which your readers can use to easily find blog entries on a specific topic.

Readers can subscribe to your blog so that they get e-mail updates or an RSS feed. In this way, they get ongoing posts from your company, which keeps you well positioned on their radar. Blogs also feature a comments section so you can also get instantaneous feedback on concepts and questions that you post to your readership. This can be extremely useful in refining a new product or service for your target audience.

Another enormous benefit of a blog is its ability to attract new traffic to your website. Because the search engines consider each new post of a blog as a separate website page, these are all indexed under different key phrases. Therefore, be sure to incorporate keywords in your entries to help people find you. For example, an insurance company in San Francisco should incorporate the terms “San Francisco insurance” into their posts with a link back to their website. In this way people can easily get more information. Be sure to include your contact information on your blog so people can get in touch.

Like every form of marketing, a blog requires you to lead it in a strategic direction. Before you start your blog, make a decision about the blog’s theme and “voice.” Once you determine your goals, stick to the topic. You can weave your personality and stories into the blog, but always keep these relevant to your target audience.

A blog that is really a sales pitch or advertisement will NOT garner a wide audience. Make your blog a tool that provides helpful advice, tips, and musings to your readers. Better yet, create compelling posts that engage your readers. You can easily add pictures and videos to enhance your blog entries. Post at least a couple of times a week to keep your readers coming back.

KINESIS TIP: So, ready to start blogging? This week, sit down and decide on your blog strategy including who in your company will write it and how you will schedule regular blog updates. When you are ready, contact Kinesis to customize and set up your blog. Then…Blog away!!!