The Business I am Using for this Class

The business I plan to create is a consulting company that helps businesses adapt to the rapidly changing internet landscape. Many small business have an outdated online presence that doesn't take advantage of today's marketing tools. The target audience my company is going after is small businesses that have outdated websites and unclear branding. These companies do not take advantage of social media or customer loyalty programs but are looking for ways to promote themselves on the internet. These are privately held businesses, at least 10 years old with at least $500,000 in annual revenue. Their owners are mature, between 35 to 55, but are not internet savvy. They are self-reliant, old-school entrepreneurs that don't understand online marketing as the internet environment has change. They are aware that times have changed but they are busy running their businesses and have little time to learn about all the online tools available for them today. Most of these businesses got on-board with the digital revolution years ago but their website have become stagnant and out of date.

Two Websites I Visit Frequently

yelp.com
The basic notion behind Yelp is that consumers will believe what other consumers say about products and services over what companies say, but as we all know, a great idea doesn't always spell success.

Yelp has done an excellent job of following up on their initial idea with a great business plan. First their branding is outstanding. The name Yelp is a combination of Yell and Help, so it makes sense as a place to yell when you are unhappy and to get help finding good businesses. Their logo is clear and recognizable and their "screaming flower" alone can already be identified by many as the Yelp icon. Yelp's website is also user friendly. It is effortless to get to yelp ratings on many different kinds of businesses. If the user wants more information they can easily drill down and read or write reviews, see menus and pictures, get directions, go to business websites, etc. I go back to yelp.com often because I can quickly get useful information every time.

craigslist.org
What a wonderful public service Craigslist. Even though this site is rather ugly, I still use it often and find it easy to navigate. I come here when I want to sell, buy or rent something, or even if I want to look for work. The list of things you can find on Craigslist seems endless. My one complaint is that they could do a better job on the aesthetic quality of their site. I like websites to not only work well, but also to look good.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

Hats off to our teachers for finding some fantastic examples of terrible websites!!
UGLY
http://tectorch.com
My first response YUCK!
Visually unappealing, cluttered, confusing.
In terms of the lecture this week C.R.A.P.H.T.E.D.:
C = Contrast: Not enough contrast in text size, colors, and photo size. It is hard to tell what is most important or what to read first.
R = Repetition: At least the links stay in approximately the same place on this site. Repetition of  page widths is not consistent making the viewer feel like they are jumping around.
A = Alignment: Links are center aligned making them look like text not links. The body text is not consistently aligned. Some of the text is too close to the photo.
P = Proximity: The labels on the products, on the home page, break the rule of proximity. It is questionable which tool the label goes with.
H = Hierarchy: The hierarchy on this website is unclear. The readers eye goes first to "Made by American Workers . . . for the Best TIG Welders"  then to "Home of WeldTec®, Speedway®, i-HEAD®, Heliweld II™ and the original TEC® brand of TIG welding torches". This makes the viewer work too hard to get to the most important part of the website. The branding. Who is this company? The actual name and tag line "TEC Welding Products, Inc. - Quality Tungsten Inert Gas Welding Torches and Accessories - Since 1955" are lost in the confusion.
T = Typography: OMG! Just so ugly. This website does use a readable font but because of the small size and long lines of text it is difficult to read. There are also too many headlines of about the same size making the hierarchy ambiguous.
E = Ease of Use:
Logo: No logo…bad. The viewer doesn't know what site they have landed on. Although the company of this site has a name "TEC Welding Products, Inc." and a decent tagline "Quality Tungsten Inert Gas Welding Torches and Accessories - Since 1955"  it is lost on the page.
Navigation: Although the navigation on this site is in a good place (left side) it is not clear at first that it is the navigation. Why? Text is too similar to other text on the page.
Click to information, don’t make me scroll for that: This website is a perfect example of this. Way too many navigation menu items, you have to scroll down the page to see them all. Most annoying to me - the only way to get back to the home page is to scroll down to the bottom (scroll… scroll… scroll…) to find the Home Page link.
D = Depth of Content: Too much content! Looks like every product they have is spelled out in great detail, if you could actually sift through it all. No obvious contact number (call to action).

GOOD
http://www.swagelok.com
Wow! What a difference a good web designer makes. This website has similar content to tectorch.com but is so much easier to navigate! They have done an outstanding job of organizing TONS of content. They have also succeeded in making the site visual appealing and not cluttered.  One thing they need is a tag line to sum up who they are.

BAD
http://www.richsoil.com/raising-chickens.jsp
scroll… scroll… scroll… scroll… scroll… scroll… scroll… scroll… scroll…
Too much text before you get to the relief of an image.
Too much information on one page!!
Navigation looks too much like text.
Unending information on this site!
Images just floating in space. Who can tell which text goes with which image??
BUT…
If you start at www.richsoil.com it is a nicely organize WordPress site. It is just when you click to read more… pandemonium!

GOOD
Ford Vs Toyota
Visual: Toyota wins for being cleaner and less cluttered they also have a much more modern look.
Navigation: Ford is simple and traditional and Toyota is innovative.
Car color choice: Ford. I like the way you can change the color of the car in a background so you can get a true idea of how the car will look. On Toyota's site a smaller version of the car changes color. Not as effective.
Call to action: Ford. With their badge in the lower right hand corner, it opens up to FordSocial, which asks you to show your passion for Ford. I find it a little corny, but may be effective.

Companies that use Social Media Links on their Sites

https://www.wellsfargo.com/
I was surprised to find that on Wells Fargo's website you have to click on an obscure link in the footer to get to the social media they use. http://blogs.wellsfargo.com/
You can follow them with:
RSS - Blog
Twitter
Facebook
YouTube

http://www.callawaygolf.com/global/en-us.html
Callaway Golf more of an old guy's company (husband work there for 15 years) uses:
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Google+
Pinterest
Blog

http://www.eastonbellsports.com/
Easton-Bell Sports hipper company that markets to young people. My husband works for them now. They do most of their marketing on social media. They use:
email
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Google+
Digg
StumbleUpon
Reddit
Tumblr

http://www.apple.com/
What?? Apple doesn't have any social media links on it's site. They only thing I could find is RSS to their blog.

http://www.amazon.com/
When you buy something on Amazon they encourage you to share your purchase on social media. They use:
email
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

Communicating with Businesses

In my general communications with businesses I have noticed that they are more responsive to the consumers needs than they used to be. In most of my interactions with companies lately they are bending over backwards to make me happy. An example of this is when I ordered a pair of biking short on Amazon.com. The post office said that the shorts were delivered on a certain date but I never received them. In the past a company might have said “the item was delivered so it is no longer our problem”, but Amazon just replace the shorts for me.

This kind of heightened customer service seems to be the norm these days. Maybe this has to do with all the ways the consumer can rate and get out their message about a company and how easy it is for other customers to read those comments.

I have not written reviews of companies myself but I use reviews all the time to decide where I want to eat (yelp.com) or what I want to buy (amazon.com). All the reviews on social media are making companies accountable, committed to excellence or out of business.

Business or Pleasure?

In my humble and uninformed opinion it seems to me that all these social media platforms work well for both business and socializing. Isn't that the idea? Making the marketing of a business feel like a friend giving you advise about what's cool. Or having a friend tell you what products or services they would be interested in buying or using.

The platform that comes to mind as the least geared towards personal use is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is businesslike and should probably stay that way. LinkedIn is the best place for job seekers and recruiters to spend their time.

Another site that seems to be for business and not social use is Dribbble.com, because of its invite-only model. Dribble is a showcase for designers, but you have to be drafted to get your designs on the site. Wouldn't I love to get a design on that site, that is a dream for the future. I will have to satisfy myself by going to Dribble to ogle other people's great designs.

While Facebook is such a popular site for personal use, I believe it is the most important site for business (especially small businesses). So many people are comfortable and "at home" on Facebook, savvy brands have the ability to connect on a more personal level with their audience. The key here it to be authentic in a way that matters and to come off as being too commercial.

Instagram is another social platform that would be great for a small design business like mine. With it visual focus it may be useful tool for getting design feedback in a raw, unfiltered environment.  It is real-time, current and youth oriented, so the contemporary immediacy is appealing, and perhaps a bit scary.

I look forward to learning more about the different platforms I could use for sharing my work and engaging with a live audience.

Why I Chose This Template

I chose this template for it's graphic and playful style. Blogging is probably the part of social media that I am most uncomfortable with so I want to keep this blog light spirited. I like this template's bright colors and representation of nature. I have always been drawn to color. I delight in rich colors and contrast. I love being in and studying nature's hues.
After choosing this template I played around with the fonts styles and colors to accentuate the lively feel of my blog.