Background image

Jack Bremer

I work hard running 3B Digital and play hard at all other times...

Profile

Jack Bremer

BSc Hons • Partner, experienced Web Developer and Online Marketing Consultant with 3B Digital
Information Technology and Services | London, United Kingdom, GB

Summary

Web Developer, Online Marketing Expert and Freelance IT Consultant, with 4+ years' experience designing and building consumer-facing websites, corporate portals and online promotion of SMEs, charities and NPOs, focusing on user-centered design (with a small "d"!), business objectives and ease-of-use.
Specialties: email and online marketing, web best practices, search engine optimisation, open-source software solutions, bespoke IT networks, server architecture, graphic design, office optimisation, jargon-free training. IT Buzz-Word Compliance: HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Joomla, Web 2.0, Adobe Photoshop, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Goldmine, Sage Line 50

Experience

  • Jun 2003 - Present

    [Partner] Web Developer and Online Marketing Consultant / 3B Digital

    3B Digital is one of London's leading design houses and digital marketing agencies, created in 1998 specifically to build websites both for companies new to the Internet, and for those looking for a newer and fresher website design. I particularly enjoy the variety of industries we work in, including entertainment, education, charities and blue-chip clients. • Managing company sales, as well as the actual implementation of new online technologies and marketing systems, specialising in "open-source" solutions which promote continual development in the most cost effective environment for the client. • Increased 3B's exposure to developing web markets through the development and implementation of interactive Web 2.0 marketing systems and content management systems for new and existing clients. • Designed, implemented and trained clients on the backend of the Institute Of Chartered Accountants of Australia (ICAA) website (www.icaa.org.uk), allowing them to increase annual revenue by 100% within the first six months.
  • Jan 2003 - Present

    Sales Director / seeyouattheparty.co.uk

    • Selling seeyouattheparty.co.uk services to event organisers who require short-notice photography and online galleries. • Managing our book of professional and student photographers. • Managing online orders at every stage, from initial order through to selection of suppliers and final fulfilment.
  • Apr 2004 - Oct 2005

    Account Manager / RedDoor Networks

    • Managing client accounts and specifying bespoke solutions for IT networks and communications systems in Education, SMEs and NPOs. Promoted to be in charge of company's biggest clients. • Building company sales and marketing initiatives to reach increasing monthly targets, selling complex and technical products and services by proving trust and knowledge to clients. • Introduced bespoke automated newsletter system for marketing the company.

Education

  • 2000 - 2003

    University of Manchester - Manchester Business School

    BSc Hons Management & Information Technology in Financial Accounting, IT in Organisations, Ecommerce, Business Management, Human Resources
    Activities: • International Mentor to a student from Canada. • Promotions and Merchandising Officer of the university Ski/Snowboard Club. I made the club profitable by building an online shop.
  • 1994 - 1999

    Lancing College

    Computers, Economics, Mathematics, Design & Technology
    Activities: Philistines Theatre Appreciation Society, Quaffers Wine Appreciation Society, Rugby 1st XV Team, Hockey Team, Clay Pigeon Shooting Team
  • 1989 - 1994

    Brighton College Junior School

Additional information

Websites:
Interests:
new technology, office optimisation, property development, snowboarding, travel, yoga, pilates, softball
Assoc.:
• Health and Safety Executive - Emergency Aid for Appointed Persons Certificate (2003) • City of Greater Manchester - Doorsafe Certificate (2001) • Snowboard Klinik - Pro Technician Qualification (1999) • Chartered Institute of Environmental Health - Food Hygiene Certificate (1997)

Latest checkin

@The Ship (41 Jews Road)
47 hours ago in London, UK

Badges

Checkin history

Friends

Posts

  • March 16, 03:58 PM

    How PR Pros Are Using Social Media for Real Results

    The Real Results series is supported by Gist, an online service that helps you build stronger relationships. By connecting your inbox to the web, you get business-critical information about key people and companies. See how it works here.

    PR professionals use social media every single day to get the word out about clients, to communicate with customers and to respond to questions or problems. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social sites have quickly become important tools in a PR professional’s overall toolkit.

    As one PR professional, Jeremy Pepper, told us,

    “There are so many uses — conversational marketing, reaching influencers — that PR is able to participate in conversations and answer questions, be a support system for clients and companies, as well as empowering customers and power users to be a de facto resource for your company, a champion for your products.”

    We’re going to take a look at how PR professionals are using social media to achieve real results when dealing with business-to-business relationships, when representing companies that already have a well-known brand, and in politics. We’ll also look into some of the tools of the trade that PR pros are using to measure the success of their endeavors.


    The Role of Social Media in Business-to-Business PR


    Pepper considers social media an important part of the public relations toolkit. When I asked him what social media has to offer PR professionals, he said, “Social media is a great tool for public relations people, especially if you align it to both PR goals and figure out what the ROI is for the client or the company.”

    As we’ve pointed out when discussing measuring social media ROI, having a goal in mind or a main focus can be very important when using social media for any reason.

    Pepper offered some insight into how he uses social media with Palisade Systems, a business-to-business data loss prevention company. For Palisade, the main goal is to increase the company’s name recognition. Because data loss prevention deals with sensitive data and often regulatory compliance (for things like HIPPA/HITECH, FERPA and others), having strong name recognition is important, as a known name can often be equated with trust.

    Pepper explained how he goes about reaching his client’s core audience, in this case small and medium-sized enterprises.

    “At Palisade, we’ve done a three-pronged approach: traditional PR, traditional analyst relations and social media. We have a Palisade Blog where we write and talk about Data Loss Prevention and various issues for corporations, we are on Twitter, shooting out information, retweeting interesting articles in the space, and participating in conversations [@PalisadeDLP], and, we reach out to security bloggers.”

    While I expected Twitter to have limited use in a B2B PR strategy, it turns out it can actually be pretty powerful. By following security experts and industry analysts, Palisade can take part in the conversations happening in the space. Pepper can also track keywords on Twitter and then communicate with CIOs and IT people who are asking questions about DLP and he can then send them case studies or reach out to start a new kind of relationship.

    As Pepper said, “It lets the people know that there is another solution besides the large corporations, and lets us have conversations with the analysts beyond the calls.”

    Blogging, for instance, is one way the company can share stories beyond just what goes into a press release.

    “One recent example is that EPISD (El Paso Independent School District) is a legacy customer of Palisade Systems, and recently signed up for the DLP solution. I interviewed the IT staff for the press release, and got great anecdotes that weren’t really appropriate for the press release. But I was able to tell them in the blog post, and expand on why they continue to use Palisade — because of our support, and our product.”


    Social Media Drives Authenticity


    Political figures have really embraced social media — the White House has an official presence on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, plus its own blog-powered website, for example — and more and more local and national representatives from all over the world are taking to the web to connect with their constituents.

    Claire McCaskill, the junior U.S. Senator from Missouri, is one politician that has embraced social media in a big way. On Twitter, @clairecmc has nearly 37,000 followers — making her the second-most popular person in Congress, according to Tweetcongress.org. The Senator also has a YouTube channel and a Tumblr blog that she uses to share information with her constituents and to respond to questions.

    Anamarie Rebori, a spokesperson for Senator McCaskill, told us that the senator actively uses social media. “While it definitely has changed the way she gets the word out, McCaskill has said that if anything, she is glad she has the opportunity to bring a more personal touch to her communications and get outside the Washington bubble,” Rebori said.

    Especially for politicians, authenticity is an important part of PR. According to Rebori, McCaskill has been able to utilize social media to communicate authentically. “People seem to respond best to an authentic touch over Twitter, and that’s something that Senator McCaskill has been able to convey in her use of social media,” Rebori said. “It’s really her typing each of those tweets, and people can tell.”

    Senator McCaskill makes a point of reading every tweet that is addressed her way — and she also makes a point to respond to others on Twitter, either via @replies or direct messages. However, as the Senator explained in her Tumblr blog, she doesn’t follow anyone.

    That’s not because of lack of engagement, it’s because it’s the best way the senator can allocate her resources. Furthermore, the senator has developed a hashtag for Missourians to use so that she can connect with as many of them as possible. If you’re a Missouri resident and you use #MO in a tweet, chances are it will get the senator’s attention.

    There are huge possibilities from a PR perspective for politicians who use social media, as Senator McCaskill’s success shows.


    Building Brand Loyalty


    Pepper also works with computer bag and accessory provider Targus. Because the company is already well-known in its space, the goals for public relations are different than with other brands. “Working with a very well-liked brand, it’s both hard and easy to get conversations going,” Pepper said, who explained that responding to negative feedback is rarely an issue because Targus gets very little.

    Instead, the approach for Pepper has been figuring out ways to develop brand loyalty and turn customers into fans. One method that has yielded results for Targus is utilizing its Twitter account for giveaways and promotions and monitoring Twitter conversations to target bag-buying consumers.

    In one situation, Pepper followed a conversation between a user who had a bag from a rival company. Pepper tweeted the user a coupon code for 25% off, which ended up being more than what the company that made his old bag had offered him and resulted in the user writing about his experience. That’s the type of thing that can create long-time customers and also get users observing or reading about the situation to consider Targus for their next product.

    Using social media has provided Pepper with a simple way to build brand loyalty without having to invest significant time and resources.


    Tools of the Trade


    Josh Jones-Dilworth, the founder and CEO of the PR and marketing consulting firm Jones-Dilworth, Inc. (and a Mashable guest author) has a lot of expertise in blogging and social media. As such, Jones-Dilworth has developed his own system for measuring the effectiveness of different social media approaches as they relate to PR.

    Jones-Dilworth explained that while it’s fairly easy to measure conversations and engagement on an empirical level, putting that analytical data into context so that it can be evaluated as cause and effect is considerably more difficult.

    “Right now we are doing a lot of work to mash up social data with business data to get cause and effect. Some products are starting to support this action — but only a few. I think this is the next big wave. You’ve got to be able to tie causes to effects, and that is the big challenge right now, what all our clients want, and what is frankly the hardest to accomplish.”

    We absolutely agree that this is both a big challenge when evaluating the successfulness of social media in any context — PR or otherwise — and that it is going to be a large area of growth in the future.

    For the future, Jones-Dilworth sees visualizations and modeling as two key components to watch for.

    “Visualization [is important] because we really need to be able to make these streams come alive and make them navigable, otherwise you’ve got death by data, pure and simple. More is more is more until it isn’t.

    Modeling is all about predicting out futures: Who will be the Farecast of social media? Who will help with intelligent decision support?”

    However, just because he doesn’t have all the tools at his disposal now doesn’t mean that Jones-Dilworth is operating in the dark. Here is Jones-Dilworth’s list of the tools that he uses for tracking social media results in his work as a PR pro:

    He also points to these tools that he enjoys playing with:

    Until we reach the stage where drawing contextual correlations between social media actions and results can be more easily measured (or at least, more easily distilled), it is vital to have concrete goals before starting a social media strategy in PR and to also have some sort of baseline.


    Common Threads


    PR professionals are using social media in a lot of ways to either supplement or add on to existing PR strategies. The most successful PR pros focus on creating active relationships and truly engaging with their customers (or constituents) to have a real conversation.

    It isn’t about just putting a PR pitch on Twitter or Facebook, it’s about using the platforms in ways that help clients to connect.

    Are you a PR professional? How do you use social media to get real results in your job? Let us know in the comments!


    Series supported by Gist

    Gist helps you build stronger professional relationships by bringing together information from across the web for all your contacts and their companies giving you the right information at the right moment to get a first meeting, deliver an amazing pitch, or just find a better way to make a connection. Gist does all the work for you, assembling a dynamic collection of all your contacts and their companies from your email inbox, your social networks, or even your CRM system automatically building and updating their profiles as new content is published – by them or about them.

    Image courtesy of iStockphoto, sodafish


    Reviews: Facebook, Google Analytics, Tumblr, Twitter, YouTube, bit.ly, iStockphoto

    Tags: claire mccaskill, jeremy pepper, josh jones-dilworth, palisade dlp, politics, pr, PUBLIC RELATIONS, real results, targus

  • March 16, 03:40 PM

    25 Things You Can Remote Control With Your iPhone [Apple]

    One of the more interesting things you can do with the iPhone is use it as a remote control for other devices. Since the iPhone App Store launched almost two years ago, developers have created hundreds of remote control applications. More »


  • March 16, 05:18 PM

    Chatroulette: Everyone Talks About It, Few Actually Visit

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    "I just spent 30 minutes on the site and only saw 2 [naked men]"

    Chatroulette has been talked about a lot over the past 30 days but for all the media mentions - ComScore reports that the site is still seeing less than 1 million unique US visitors per month. Site visitors are disproportionately young, male and also interested in gay and lesbian websites, the company says.

    As social network analyst danah boyd puts it, Chatroulette is "a hugely controversial site, one that is prompting yet-another moral panic about youth engagement online." Given all the controversy - wouldn't you think that more than 1 million people in the US would have visited the site last month?

    Sponsor

    Boyd again on the up side of the site:

    ChatRoulette reminds me a lot of the quirkiness of the Internet that I grew up with. Like when I was a teen trolling through chatrooms, ChatRoulette is filled with all sorts of weird people. And most users ignore most other users until they find someone they find interesting or compelling...I can't tell you how formative it was for me to grow up talking to all sorts of random people online. So I feel pretty depressed every time I watch people flip out about the dangers of talking to strangers. Strangers helped me become who I was. Strangers taught me about a different world than what I knew in my small town. Strangers allowed me to see from a different perspective. Strangers introduced me to academia, gender theory, Ivy League colleges, the politics of war, etc. So I hate how we vilify all strangers as inherently bad. Did I meet some sketchballs on the Internet when I was a teen? DEFINITELY. They were weird; I moved on...I simultaneously am amused by ChatRoulette and depressed because I realize that so many folks would prefer to keep themselves and their teens/college-aged-kids sheltered rather than giving them a way of thinking about systems like this and teaching them to walk away when things get weird.

    Given all that, the fact that less than a million people in the US visited the site last month seems like a real shame. Heck, if it's naked men you're concerned with - I just spent 30 minutes on the site and only saw 2 of them. Maybe that's changing.

    Google Trends says Chatroulette is most popular in Tunisia, followed by Norway, France, Chili and Finland. Belgium, Turkey and Sweden send more traffic to the site than the US too. Perhaps it's a cultural thing, then. People in the US media find the site interesting, they talk about it all the time, but for some reason not a lot of people in the US are checking it out. ReadWriteWeb was bigger than Chatroulette last month, in fact. We're not waiting by the phone for John Stewart to call, though.

    <embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="never" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/32vpgNiAH60&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed>
    Discuss


    "I just spent 30 minutes on the site and only saw 2 [naked men]"
  • March 07, 08:36 AM

    My Grand Mac Tour

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    @boagworld Enjoyed this, but sounds like hard work when you reinstall/move machines!?

    post thumbnail

    I am a nut. It’s an obsession really. As a result I have all kinds of little apps and tricks I use to streamline my working life. In this I show you a few and hopefully introduce you to some applications you have never used before.


    Some of the applications mentioned include…

    Similar Posts:

    @boagworld Enjoyed this, but sounds like hard work when you reinstall/move machines!?
  • March 07, 08:11 AM

    My Grand Mac Tour

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    @thirdyearabroad

    post thumbnail

    I am a nut. It’s an obsession really. As a result I have all kinds of little apps and tricks I use to streamline my working life. In this I show you a few and hopefully introduce you to some applications you have never used before.


    Some of the applications mentioned include…

    Similar Posts:

    @thirdyearabroad
  • March 06, 01:11 PM

    Steve Jobs: iPad Won’t Support iPhone Tethering

    Not one to mince words, Steve Jobs squashed all hope of the iPad supporting iPhone tethering for wireless Internet access with one word — “No.”

    The succinct answer was communicated by Jobs via e-mail (from his iPhone) to Jezper Söderlund of Sweden who e-mailed Jobs to ask, “Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?”

    9to5Mac has both e-mails in question, along with e-mail header information, and all indications point to the one word buzzkill response being legit. You can read the text of the e-mail inquiry and Jobs’s response below:

    Söderlund’s e-mail:

    “I’ll keep it short.

    I’m Jezper from Sweden, a long time Apple fan, currently about to replace the very last computer at home with a brand spanking new iMac i7. I’m also awaiting the release of the iPad. However, I have one question:

    Will the wifi-only version somehow support tethering thru my iPhone?

    Two devices, based on the same OS, with already built-in technology to share one data plan suggests a secondary contract could possibly be redundant.

    From the look of your keynote, where the iPad sits well between my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I was hoping the three of them could interact as seamless as possible.

    All the best,
    Jezper Söderlund[a famous DJ in his own right]“

    Jobs’ response:

    “No.

    Sent from my iPhone”

    The bottom line is that those of you who were hoping to buy the cheaper Wi-Fi version of the iPad and tether your iPhone for 3G Internet access (and avoid the additional 3G hardware costs and AT&T subscription plan) are out of luck.

    From a consumer perspective, the news is quite disappointing. One would hope that the costly iPhone data plan would be applicable to the iPad. The idea of paying a per device monthly wireless Internet fee is one that won’t sit well with most consumers. The decision doesn’t exactly come as a surprise, though. We already know that AT&T is facing network challenges, which they blame on heavy iPhone users, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to encourage or support additional bandwidth without additional fees.


    Reviews: iPhone

    Tags: Apple iPad, Apple Tablet, att, iphone tethering, steve jobs

  • March 06, 09:50 PM

    Top 10 Geekiest Decorations for Your Home or Office [PICS]

    We certainly wouldn’t advocate turning your office, cubicle or home office into some kind of over-the-top dork theme park, but a few witty items carefully placed here and there can brighten up the dullest work space with some geek chic.

    Having an office gives you the chance to display things you might not get away with (or indeed, want to get away with) at home. From magnificent magnets to clever clocks and wall decals, here’s a choice of ten products that will help you geek-pimp your work space in style.


    1. iPhone Icon Coasters

    These Meninos coasters are styled after the iPhone’s icons giving Apple fans somewhere cool to stick their cups. Made of medium-density fiberboard (MDF) with a durable vinyl finish and a rubber bottom to stop slips, the anally retentive among you could arrange them on the coffee table as precisely as they appear on the phone’s homescreen, while the rest of us can mix ‘em up as we see fit. Oh, and if the iPhone’s not your thing, then Meninos also offers an Internet-themed set too.

    Cost: $59.99


    2. Million Dollar Homepage Poster

    As well as adding a splash of color to your office walls, this poster will serve as inspiration, reminding you that a small, simple idea can grow into big, fat success. The million dollar home page poster is an exact replica of the original Web page, measuring 60cm x 60cm with a gloss finish. Heck, if you’re feeling flush yourself, you could even frame it.

    Cost: $30


    3. Enter Key Doormat

    Let your visitors know that they are entering a geek domain right from the start with this recycled rubber doormat that is modeled after the “Enter” key. Designed by Pieter Woudt, there’s also a “Home” key version if whoever you share a domicile with will let you get away with geeking out your porch.

    Cost: $30


    4. Photoshop Magnets

    We can’t think of a better way to stick your team pics to the fridge or filing cabinet than with these Photoshop-themed magnets, another little gem from Meninos. The set comprises 13 magnets which will be very familiar to anyone who has used the photo editing software as they replicate the menus and tool bars found in the popular Adobe product.

    Cost: $25.00


    5. A Red Swingline Stapler

    As any fashion-lover will know, it’s all about the accessories. In this case, the essential office accessory is the Red Swingline Stapler. Launched in 2002 after strong customer demand generated by the stapler’s appearance in geek cult classic Office Space, the desk tool will elicit knowing approval from fans of the film. Just be sure to hide it when Lumberg’s around.

    Cost: $32.48 (on sale at the time of writing for $21.99)


    6. Recycled Mac Clocks

    What’s the time? It’s geek o’ clock with these recycled Mac clocks offered by Etsy seller Pixelthis. The version pictured ($59) is the side panel of a retired Mac G4, upcycled into a working wall clock. There’s a whole selection over on Pixelthis’ Etsy shop, while commissions and customization of anything you want to send in to get the timepiece treatment are offered too, with price by negotiation.

    Cost: Varies


    7. Pantone Mugs

    Don’t put up with boring chinaware, or worse still, ugly corporate freebie mugs. These officially licensed mugs from Pantone will delight anyone with an eye for color, or even a passing interest in design. The espresso set offers appropriate shades of coffee brown, whilst the more colorful set provides 10 shades — all marked with their Pantone reference, of course.

    Cost: $50 and $120


    8. Google Bean Bag

    By all accounts, the Googleplex is a place of wonder. You can emulate a little bit of that magic with the Google Bean Bag — the very same kind gracing the Googleplex. Who knows what kind of gProducts have been thought up while someone’s posterior was placed on one of these things? Inspirational, indeed.

    Cost: $109.40


    9. Orbiculus from Art Lebedev

    The Art Lebedev Studio has transformed “Cancel,” “Play,” “Save,” “OK,” and other commands into real-life objects with a useful function — the thumbtack. You can opt for the mixed set, or if you’re feeling particularly positive, go for the “Everything Is OK” set which is made up, as you might have already guessed, of just the “OK” pins. We simply can’t think of a better way to secure items to a bulletin board.

    Cost: Approx $6


    10. Blik Wall Decals

    Blik offers a way to geek up your blank walls that is ideal for the commitment-phobe: Vinyl decals that can be peeled off it you get bored of them, or if your office landlord has a tizzy when he/she sees them. There are a few designs available that will turn your wall into a scene from a Super Marios Bros. game, or the classic Space Invaders. There are some pretty cool robots, too.

    Cost: Varies


    More gift guide resources from Mashable:

    - 5 Must-Have Geek Collectibles
    - Twitter Gift Guide: 15 Ways to Shop for the Twitter Obsessed
    - Mac Gift Guide: 10 Buying Ideas for Apple Fans
    - 10 Great Digital Gifts for Social Media Lovers
    - 10 Romantic Gifts for Your Beloved Geek

    Tags: design, geek, gift guide, Google, iphone, List, Lists, office, shopping, shopping list, trending

  • March 07, 07:46 AM

    An end-of-day silly. :)

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    A geeky hosting joke for @rochenhost -
    EDIT: My apologies to non-geeks. A geeky hosting joke for @rochenhost -
  • March 05, 04:50 AM

    Office Ultimate 2010 for £38.95 (Students and .ac.uk e-mails)

    Hi all,

    Thought I'd post in here just to raise awareness but this is a student deal with a limited time only.

    The current student offer for Office Ultimate 2007 will be valid for the FREE upgrade to Office Ultimate 2010.

    However, when 2010 becomes the standard download for the student offer (ie when it is released) they will be increasing the price by £10.

    So if you were holding out to upgrade, DON'T! Buy it now and save a tenner, plus get 2007 for now.

    Visit http://www.microsoft.com/uk/studentdeal

    Hope it helps someone.

    Nick
  • February 10, 12:11 PM

    The top 5 reasons brands fear social media

    ayeletnoffI’ve been in the social media space now for quite a few years and I meet with at least 5 companies each week who have understood the importance of utilizing social media for their businesses but are still afraid of entering their brands into the new media age.

    What are they worried about? Here are the top five concerns that I’ve heard from executives and my response to them:

    1) They’re afraid they’ll lose control of their brand and open themselves up to negative feedback — When you open a business and start marketing your services and exposing your brand to others, people will start talking about your brand. And this is why you exposed them to your brand in the first place.

    OstrichPeople are going to be talking about your brand no matter what. The question is: Do you want to be a part of the dialogue or do you want to just play ostrich and ignore what people are saying? If a person is dissatisfied with your services, do you prefer he opens up this discussion in a “I hate <your brand>” group opened up by another hater or do you prefer that he come to your page and post the complaint there allowing you to respond appropriately and even perhaps win him back as a client?

    Social media didn’t create the dissatisfied customer — it only allowed him a platform to express his frustration. If you don’t give him the stage to speak, he will do it elsewhere and believe me, it will cause a great deal more damage to your brand if you’re not there to respond and open to criticism.

    When we speak of social media, we speak of conversational marketing — listening before selling, opening a dialogue with the user and not just throwing a blinking banner in his face. Brands need to make that switch in their heads and understand that social media is SOCIAL. Many conversations will be positive and you will have these nice messages recorded for everyone to see publicly — your bosses, your investors, your customers and potential customers:

    I-love-ZapposSome conversations may be negative but these conversations should be seen as welcomed opportunities to gain back customers. If you utilize social media effectively and are alert to what people are saying about you online, then you can also respond in a timely and intelligent manner. When you’re dazed and confused and too afraid to see what people may be saying about you, that’s when the conversation can get out of control and your branding and positioning can go out the window. Companies who understand social media know that by using social media they are increasing the number of positive responses to their brand and making sure to control and decrease the negative responses by showing people that they actually care about what they have to say.

    2) They don’t understand it — Companies fear social media because they don’t understand what to do with it, what to talk about, who to turn to. They often time try to do it in-house without the appropriate guidance, fail miserably and then say that social media doesn’t work. Don’t hire your friend’s son who is very active on Facebook to do your marketing strategy for you. Just like you wouldn’t fix your car in-house or do your PR in-house, neither should you start doing social media on your own without having a social media guru at your side. And when I say guru, I mean someone who has had a good track record in creating successful social media campaigns for other companies in the past. Once you have such a guide at your side and you begin to understand what social media is all about, then you will not be afraid of it anymore and you will start to recognize the infinite number of amazing opportunities that social media will open your brand to.

    3) The effectiveness of social media is hard to measure — Because social media is still in its diapers, it took a little while for tools tracking the ROI on social media campaigns to emerge, however today we have a suite of different tools that allow companies to track even the most minute details in the effectiveness of their social media campaigns. Tools like Google Analytics, which allow us to track the traffic coming into our site as well as where it’s coming from has existed for years. Google alerts which allow us to see the blog posts and other sites linking back to our site have also existed for a long time. And we are now seeing an influx of services that not only allow you to easily monitor what people are saying about your brand but also see who are the top influencers, opinion leaders in your industry and more. There are numerous services that allow you to see the top influencers on twitter such as: Twitter grader and twitter analytics services such as Twitalyzer . Facebook also provides its own insights to page admins and enables admins to view information regarding the demographics of their fans and also how many interactions, comments, wall posts, etc. were found on the page. The more we learn about social media, the more tools we get to measure it. Not only are our efforts in the social media realm measurable but social media campaigns also allow us to target specific campaigns to specific niches like no other media today.

    4) They’re afraid that employees will be on Facebook and twitter chatting all day — Facebook today has around 350 million users. If Facebook was a nation, it would be the world’s third most populous after China and India. Your employees are there anyway. Why not utilize the fact that they are there to help your cause? When you need to spread the word on Facebook, why not enable your employees to help you or when you finally open that fan page on Facebook, why not allow your employees to become fans and encourage them to take part in your social media activities. Dell for example, who is well known for their great twitter strategy (a strategy which has earned them $6.5 million to date), has around 200 employees working its twitter account, responding to people.

    In addition, not allowing your employees to have access to the vast amount of information that can be found on social networks as well as not enabling them to use these networks as research tools nor to network with people in the industry also puts your company at a great disadvantage to your competitors who do allow their employees (and even encourage them) to use social media tools.

    5) Social media is costly — This last fear is not only something that companies should not fear but it is also not true. If you consider the millions of people that you can reach using social media as opposed to the cost of buying an ad on TV or buying a banner, you’ll see that social media is one of the most cost efficient ways of reaching your target audience today.

    To anyone who still thinks social media is a fad, wake up. It’s not. Social media is here and it’s here to stay. If you took a look at the latest report that came out of Davos regarding social networks, you’ll see that Facebook is now the second most popular site on the internet after Google and that according to Nielsen since February 2009 people have been spending more time on social-networking sites than on e-mail, and the lead is getting bigger. The question for your brand is no longer whether to be there or not to be there. The question is when will you be there and the longer you keep your head in the ground, the more you’ll lose touch with what’s happening out there in the real world.

    Great Ostrich pic credit: http://blog.karmona.comAyelet Noff is founder and CEO of Blonde 2.0, a consultancy specializing in helping brands use social media tools such as social networks, the blogosphere and social software to create brand awareness, recruit employees or achieve any other goal. See her business profile, contact Ayelet, follow her on Twitter or leave a comment below.

    Post to Twitter Tweet It! Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to Reddit Reddit Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

    Related posts:

    1. Joanna Lord on brands, SEM and social media
    2. Social media, brands and the way forward
    3. The Top Five Misconceptions About Social Media

  • February 16, 06:49 PM

    Ethical guidelines for talking with your customers

    BlogWell-San-Diego

    2 essential tools: Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit & Social Media Policies roundup

    JD LasicaToday’s BlogWell event in San Diego offers a good time to post a summary of resources available for businesses and organizations beginning to dabble in social media. This is not the Wild, Wild West where anything goes. By now certain certain customs, ethical standards and unspoken social interactions are widely expected on the social Web.

    First, a word about BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media. reps from the U.S. Navy, Starbucks, Clorox, USAA, TurboTax and State Farm are talking openly about how they’re using social media in their companies or organizations. There’s a live blog of the event’s proceedings.

    One reason BlogWell rises above some of the other social marketing events popping up everywhere is its association with the Social Media Business Council (formerly the Blog Council, a association of major brands that use social media. See a list of member companies — I just signed up for their newsletter. And socialmedia.org — someone shelled out a few dollars to buy that domain.

    andy-sernovitz
    “Almost every social media scandal involving brands boils down to a lack of disclosure.”
    – Andy Sernovitz

    When I attended the first of two BlogWells, organizer Andy Sernovitz made a point of putting ethics and disclosure front and center. “The number one issue around ethics comes down to disclosure — being honest about your true identity,” he said.

    Disclosure is essential, easy but requires education, Sernowitz said. “You don’t tack on a disclosure statement later, you start with that. You start with ethics and that’s how you lead.” It’s not only the right thing to do, but “it’s essential as a way to stay out of trouble. Almost every social media scandal involving brands boils down to a lack of disclosure. The blogosphere expects to know your motivations.”

    The “10 magic words” for employees venturing onto the social Web, he said, are these: “I work for X, and this is my personal opinion.” That disclaimer goes a long way in helping to separate official company policy from an employee’s personal views.

    Here’s my Disclosure and conflict of interest statement, which I posted in early 2008 and have updated repeatedly since then.

    Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit

    The Social Media Business Council has created a Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit — a handy and essential resource for any company involved in social media. This is not an imperious one-size-fits-all list of must-dos — “we’re not a standards body or trade association,” as Sernovitz says. Instead, it’s an open source toolkit to help you build your social media policy.

    “Adapt it to your company, teach your team, improve ad share,” he adds. It could be a full-blown policy that comes out of corporate communications, it might be part of your company’s employee handbook, or it could be a set of informal guidelines for your department or team.

    Download the 10-page tookit as a Word docx. Details:

    This is an Open Source Document

    • This is a living document that will continually change.
    • This document will continue to evolve with community feedback and participation.
    • Share and change this document as much as you like. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License and attribute it to the Social Media Business Council and link to http://www.socialmedia.org/disclosure.

    The next BlogWell gatherings are in Cincinnati on April 7 and Seattle on May 5.

    Socialmedia.biz has put together a resource guide to Social Media Policies created by corporations, media organizations, nonprofits and other groups. The policies of Intel, HP, IBM, Wells Fargo, the Washington Post and Bread for the World are among those included. Here are some of our posts on ethics and best practices in the online arena:

    Best practices for developing a social media policy (avail­able as a down­load­able PDF)
    Social Media Policies
    • JD Lasica’s Disclosure and conflict of interest statement
    BlogHer, the FTC, ethics and conflicts of interest
    Is the Internet making us more ethical? (video interview)
    Blogging for dollars raises questions of online ethics
    Jarvis: 3 ethics the news media can learn from bloggers

    Related

    Create your own disclosure policy (DisclosurePolicy.org)

    WOMMA Ethics Code

    Making Disclosure and Transparency Easier (Socialmedia.org)

    Andy Sernovitz: Why it’s wrong to pay for blog coverage (Huffington Post)

    Ted Murpy on the Disclosure Best Practices Toolkit

    Marketing Profs Daily Fix: Blog Council Unveils Disclosure Toolkit

    JD Lasica works with major companies and nonprofits on social media strategies. See his business profile, contact JD or leave a comment.

    Post to Twitter Tweet It! Post to Yahoo Buzz Buzz This Post Post to Delicious Delicious Post to Digg Digg This Post Post to Facebook Facebook Post to Reddit Reddit Post to StumbleUpon Stumble This Post

    Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.

    Related posts:

    1. Old ethical rules still apply
    2. Ethics guidelines for digital imaging
    3. Guidelines for newspaper bloggers

  • February 02, 12:38 PM

    101 Ways to speed up your Joomla site

    101joomlaspeedWell currently 12 16 ways but with your help we will make it 101!  I'll update the post as and when we get more ways to speed up your joomla site.

    What with Matt Cutts recent (ish) interview with Web Pro News, he mentions that google will be taking page load times into consideration when they rank your website. What does this mean for all the joomla users?  Can joomla keep up?

    Read more...

  • February 24, 12:57 AM

    Importing RSS Feeds Into Joomla Articles

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    Nice #Joomla #webdesign tip:

    This tutorial will show you how to take an RSS feed and import it into your  Joomla site. Each item on the RSS feed will become a separate Joomla article. We use this technique for a couple purposes:

    • Distributing our content to other Joomla sites. For example, we use this technique to showing these tutorials on Alledia.com.
    • Importing blogs and news on a particular topic from other sites. This way people can read them all in one place.

    We're going to use a component called 4RSS from 4RSS.com.

    Read more...

    Nice #Joomla #webdesign tip:
  • February 23, 05:37 AM

    English National Ballet: Swan Lake

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    @enballet
    Don't miss English National Ballet's spectacular Swan Lake in-the-round at the Royal Albert Hall in London. 9-19 Jun
    Book Online
     
    @enballet
  • February 12, 12:39 AM

    20 High Quality Free Fonts for Designers

    You may have noticed that we love finding awesome free fonts and sharing them with you. So don’t spend any of your valuable time searching the internet for more fonts. We’ve got you covered.

    Here are 20 high quality free fonts for you to use in your designs. In this selection, you will find a variety of styles. Some are more progressive, while others are just impossible not to love, like Sketchetica – a hand drawn version of Helvetica. Whether you’re doing posters, t-shirts, or web designs, you should find these fonts very useful.

    Deibi

    fonts

    Sketchetica

    fonts

    Giro

    fonts

    Clutchee

    fonts

    Tribbon

    fonts

    KnucklePuck

    fonts

    Folk

    fonts

    Etcetera

    fonts

    Amputa Bangiz

    fonts

    Betlog Square

    fonts

    Slimbo

    fonts

    Tozuna

    fonts

    VAL

    fonts

    Days

    fonts

    LOT

    fonts

    Cube 02

    fonts

    FILE

    fonts

    Zag

    fonts

    Hetilica Bold

    fonts

    Paranoid

    fonts

  • February 02, 08:00 AM

    Productivity Pr0n: 5 Unusually Useful Notepads

    5 Unusually Useful Notepads

    Hi. My name is Dustin, and I’m addicted to notepads.

    I first realized I was addicted when I found myself prowling office supply stores in the wee hours of the afternoon, trying to score a college-ruled composition book. Pretty soon, I couldn’t go anywhere without my works – a battered red Moleskine and a black Sharpie click-pen.

    And it got worse. I started thinking, “maybe there’s a perfect notebook out there for this particular project.” My Moleskine’s 192 leaves bound in pocket-sized covers wasn’t enough to satisfy my growing need for specialty papers.

    The worst part is, I liked it. And I stand here before you, still liking it. Loving it. Yes, my name is Dustin, but I”m not a mere addict. I’m a paper enthusiast, a connoisseur of the carnet, a gourmand of the grid line, a foodie of foolscap.

    Let me show you a few of my more exotic finds.

    1. Rollabind

    20100202-Rollabind

    Also marketed as the Levenger Circa system, the Rollabind (or just “Rolla”) is an infinitely customizable, assemble-it-yourself notebook made using a Rollabind punch and Rollabind discs. Basically, you take the pages you want to assemble, punch the binding edge with the special punch, and insert the discs into the punches to hold it all together. The holes are open on one side, so you can remove and insert pages at will, and the unique design allows the whole thing to be opened flat, making them easy to write on.

    The system can be used to compile planners, address books, journals, or just about anything else you can imagine, using pages of your own design, pre-printed pages akin to those sold for Dayplanners and the like, or templates from the DIY Planner site. Both Rollabind and Levenger sell a range of kits with punches, discs, and covers (from simple pressboard to luxurious leather). Circa/Rolla notebooks are a bit pricey compared to off-the-shelf notebooks (though some of the expenses, like the punch and reusable discs, can be amortized over years of notebook-making) but are pretty comparable in price to organizer sets from DayRunner or FranklinCovey.

    2. Whitelines

    WHitelines vs. REgular Lines

    Whitelines paper has white lines. Seriously.

    If you’ve ever, say, tried to photocopy something you wrote or drew, you already know one use case for paper with white lines. If you’re a creative sort who maybe needs some lines to keep everything at the same scale but would rather not have to compete with those lines when displaying your ideas, you know another. And Whitelines has you pegged, because they make paper with white lines.

    So here’s the deal: Whitelines notebooks are made with a lightly toned paper lined or gridded with white ink, so you can definitely see the lines while you’re working (meaning you avoid the “over-the-cliff” curve you get when you write on unlined paper) but step away just a bit and the lines fade away. And there are bindings for everyone, from hard-bound Moleskine-like notebooks to perfect-bound paperbacks to glue-bound notepads (so you can tear sheets off),

    Available in the US only through specialty retailers (mostly book stores), Canadians and Western Europeans can find them at your national Amazon stores as well as in several chains. Prices are comparable to Moleskines of the same size and format. Use the store finder to find out how to get yours.

    3. Behance Dot Grid Book

    20100202-behance

    Behance notebooks are beloved of creative professionals, and the Dot Grid Book and Dot Grid Journal are a pretty good indication of why. Designers want the precision of a grid, but they also want the grid to “disappear”, to get out of their way so they can work. In other words, they appreciate good design in notebook grids as in everything else.

    And these notebooks from Behance are nothing if not good design. The “Book” model has a semi-hard “suede touch” cover that is spiral-bound to lay flat on a table or other surface; the “Journal” model is hard-bound like a Moleskine for portable knee-top use. Both have a super-light but functional grid of dots to guide without constraining so you can do layouts, tight design work, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

    4. Aquanotes

    Aquanotes

    The age-old problem of how to capture notes in the shower may have found a solution. No more messy bath crayons or grease pencils – here comes Aquanotes! Aquanotes are suction-cup-mounted notepads made of 100% waterproof paper that can be written on however wet they may be. So you always have a notepad handy at what experts say is our most creative time, shower time.

    The only problem is, where do you keep your pencil?

    5. Notepod

    NOtepod

    Got an idea for an iPhone app? There’s a pad for that.

    Notepod is an iPhone-shaped notepad, with an unlined  writing area where the iPhone’s screen would be and gridlines on the back, packed in 100-page board-backed notepads. The implementation is new, but like the iPhone itself, the idea goes back a long ways, to the original battery-less paper Palm Pilot. Of course, you don’t have to be an iPhone developer to use a Notepod – it works just as well for on-the-fly note-taking and jotting down phone messages or, for the real low-tech, replacing your iPhone entirely (though you need a really good arm for the text messaging function…).

    Know any other cool, super-functional (or just super-neat) notepads out there? Let me and the other addicts- er, afficionados know all about them in the the comments!


    Dustin M. Wax is a freelance writer and project manager at Stepcase Lifehack. He can be reached though his freelancing site at DustinWax.comDon't Be Stupid: A Guide to Learning, Studying, and Succeeding at College.

    Follow him on Twitter: @dwax.

    Share This

  • February 08, 11:26 AM

    YouTube - The Guardian: Why do people hate chuggers?

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    @jamescousins You need a shave:
    <embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="never" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oT_a6qdCwc0&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;fs=1&amp;" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed> @jamescousins You need a shave:
  • February 08, 11:10 AM

    Businesses to rely on social networking rather than email, research predicts - bobsguide.com

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    1/5 of businesses using social networking as main method of comms by 2014:
    up to a fifth of organisations will utilise social networking services as the main method of interpersonal communication within business by 2014. 1/5 of businesses using social networking as main method of comms by 2014:
  • January 29, 08:44 AM

    Designers These Days…

    … have a good design sense and understand the fundamentals / design principals.
    … know all the major design software including the entire Adobe Creative Suite.
    … have some basic video editing skills.
    … know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
    … know enough about server-side languages (PHP, ASP, Ruby, Python, etc) to understand how they work, what they do, and the possibilities of their use.
    … know about servers, hosting, domain registrants, DNS, etc. Setting it up, and fixing it when it breaks.
    … know OS X really well (and enough Windows to get by) or know Windows really well (and enough OS X to get by) and know a huge variety of utility software that goes with.
    … are good photographers.
    … can color correct photos and work in RAW.
    … can cut clipping paths or otherwise extract objects from photos.
    … have a killer online portfolio.
    … are a personable, nice people that are good with clients.
    … can help clients with anything even vaguely computer-related.
    … are quick to adapt to new software and new technologies.
    … can train fellow employees.
    … can train clients on the use of their websites.
    … are good communicators.
    … are team players.
    … have good taste in art, music and movies.
    … are up to date on social media.
    … are good at logic and deduction.
    … are good at user experience and user testing.
    … are SEO experts.
    … know about and how to handle web accessibility (and the laws surrounding it)
    … understand copyright laws.
    … do progressive enhancement and graceful degradation techniques.
    … can debug cross-browser problems and older browser bugs.
    … can bring your own client base.
    … are healthy, well groomed, and wear fancy t-shirts.
    … can be on-call at all times for emergencies.
    … have college degrees in design-related fields.
    … own very nice and expensive computers full of expensive software.
    … can design for mobile devices.
    … are good typographers.

    Partly tongue-in-cheek of course… but not entirely. The list of things a modern web designer should know is long, and each skill feels like it could be a lifetime in itself. Good luck learning that in a 2 or 4 year program (not that that isn’t a good start).

  • January 29, 05:17 PM

    Making dough or spam? The perplexing case of designing lead generation pages

    Shared by Jack Bremer, 3B Digital
    Fascinating:

    I spend a lot of time working on large-scale site designs, redesigns, and app designs, so it’s kind of fun when the pressure is on to develop a single lead generation page.

    For the purposes of this post, let’s define a lead generation as a single page that is:

    • Usually discoverable when a user clicks on an ad
    • A page that precedes a much larger site, or a gateway that refers the user into a larger site
    • Dedicated to rapidly getting users’ email/personal information for follow-up messaging and/or a trial account
    • Almost always makes an offer (discount, trial period, etc.)
    • Not always connected in an obvious way to the larger app’s site (a user might struggle to find it again)

    Guild Wars: Free Trial! - Become a Fantasy Legend!_1264644583297

    In some ways, a lead generation page, is a micro version of the app’s home page or sales flow.

    GuildWars.com: Welcome to the Official Guild Wars Website_1264645944579

    Companies make substantial investments in Google AdWords (and others) to drive traffic to lead gen pages, so these single page designs have hefty expectations to deliver compelling user experience, design creativity, and form functionality

    Lead gen page design is not only short, sweet, and mostly self-contained. It’s also a perplexing balancing act between designing for conversion “the dough” and employing some conventions (e.g. not hyperlinking logos back to the app’s main home page, stock photography, microcopy, offers, etc.) that feel more trickster-like “the spam.”

    Match.com - Get 3 Days FREE with Match.com_s Online Dating Personals Service_1264563731401-1

    I’ve divided this post into two parts, 3 tips to follow when designing a lead generation page, and a 3-part redesign of an actual lead generation page that’s currently out in the wild.

    Part I. Three Tips to Follow When Designing a Lead Generation Page

    1. It’s OK to Design to Dead-end

    Your lead generation page has the sole goal of conversion and should be a well-designed dead-end.

    By dead-end, I mean that the submit button and legalese (TOS, Privacy Policy, accreditation statement, etc) are the only clickable elements. This means that traditional navigation items like the logo can be there, but should not be clickable. The design drives the user to complete the form without noticing she’s hit a dead-end (which can feel a lot like spam). If a user finds herself clicking about and not getting results, the page isn’t doing it’s main job.

    There are plenty of ways to reduce the user’s desire to click items:

    • Add a tasteful degree of “dazzle” to the submit button
    • Decrease the design effects on the logo that would usually look like it was meant to take the user “home”
    • Place the logo in an unusual area: midway down the page, inside the form itself, or towards the lower right corner
    • Add texture and effects to the background instead of onto or within the elements like text or iconography
    • Write great microcopy that answers questions before a user has time to consider navigating away

    2. Go Google “Role Play Gaming” & “Online Dating” & Click on the AdWords

    Right now, go Google “Role Playing Games” and “Online Dating” and click on the Google Ads. Change your searches up a little by adding your city “new york” or the word “free.”

    Social/role play gaming sites like World of Warcraft feature some of the most persuasive user experiences for lead generation design and layout ideas.

    Sign up for a free World of Warcraft Trial_1264553706870

    Online dating sites like Match, Chemistry, and eHarmony also feature some compelling user experiences on their lead gen pages. I’ve found that they can also inform you about user response (good and bad) towards both overuse and interesting use of stock/posed model photography.

    Match.com - Find Singles with Match.com_s Online Dating Personals Service_1264563758990-1

    eharmony

    3. Build to A/B Test From Day 1

    Design for a lead gen page is never “final.” These pages are among the most important of your stakeholder’s online properties. They are also among the most easily tested, because your stakeholders are sending planned traffic to them.

    • Design for constant optimization
    • Test designs out by geolocation, ad campaign, search query, and hundreds of other scenarios
    • Determine what equals “success,” the mathematical ratio at which you commit to a split-tested change
    • Outline the limits of your design, such as: photo height/width, odd image must-haves and restrictions (e.g. in the use case below we quickly learned that all photos would have elbows showing)
    • Identify what is image copy v. html copy (in case your stakeholder wants to optimize the design herself)

    match-brooklyn

    Match.com - Find Singles with Match.com's Online Dating Personals Service_1264646663212

    Part II. Use Case: Redesigning a University’s Online Degree Lead Generation Page

    For this post, I wanted to concentrate on a single use case, a design for a search query around “masters degree in education online.” I’ve selected this search query for the following reasons:

    • Online degrees are heavily promoted with Google Ads (a major investment for many universities)
    • Online degrees are perceived as “lesser quality” degrees, so they have a somewhat spammy history
    • Online degrees are gaining rapid traction and academic and professional respect
    • Many top 25 universities are both entering and refining the online degree space
    • I happened to be working on this very challenge

    *Apologies, this is a client I’m currently working with (and who I love), so I’ve scrubbed the university’s and program’s branding. I can tell you that it is a top 25 university in the U.S. and they are doing some fantastic, extraordinary things with online learning at the university level. In spite of the strike-throughs I think you’ll see what we’ve accomplished.

    It’s important note that the current page (below) has been very successful, so our first job was to not break anything that has been working.

    original-design-1

    We noticed that:

    • Adding the word “prestigious” didn’t make the design feel prestigious, but we felt that the adjective was important enough to provide us with an opportunity to express prestige in a more visual but ambient way
    • Aspiring Teachers and Current Teachers were both outlined in yellow, so they looked like clickable buttons, but weren’t, which could be frustrating to a user clicking on them looking for more information
    • The color red felt overused and without focus on “action,” there was an added challenge because red is a major part of the university’s brand
    • The blackboard made sense, but it added extra noise to the design which was already full of lots of copy competing for the user’s attention
    • The design was left justified and didn’t make the best use of the full-screen experience

    Design Round #1. — Maintain consistency with the original design elements

    redesign-1-1

    For this first revision, we were asked to stay as close as possible to the “control,” we found this challenging, but we did stick to the core elements (chalkboard, teacher, etc.), so we:

    • Used different stock photos and incorporated a green chalkboard v. black to add a sense of “friendliness” to the design and make the reds and yellows really pop
    • Placed more emphasis on the university and program brands
    • Reversed the form color from red to yellow, so that red became our action color and was more balanced by the red in the brand’s logo
    • Eliminated the number of items that looked clickable to keep the user focused on the form, but added texture to the background of the page to convey dimension and depth
    • Reorganized and tightened up copy
    • Added inline validation (which we plan to test)
    • Replaced a dropdown menu with two radio buttons and plan to default to aspiring teacher (which is the largest audience) therefore reducing more than 75% of our base user’s need to check off that step
    • Added a little “dazzle” to the submit button to make feel like it just had to be clicked
    • Added “We promise never to spam you” below the button to reduce fear of sharing information

    Design Round #2 — Lose the blackboard and incorporate more authentic imagery

    design-2

    For this second revision, we were asked to try a design without the blackboard and to try to find stock photography that looked more authentic, so we applied some lessons learned around using stock imagery:

    • When in doubt choosing stock photography, I recommend going with kids v. adults. Kids are cuter, and it’s easier to get away with a cute child, puppy, or panda, than with an obvious stock shot featuring an adult
    • To make the stock photo work better, subtract the original background, integrating it a little more deeply into the design’s background
    • Tightened up copy again (I don’t think you can do this enough, and recommend that you revisit microcopy again and again when in the design phase)
    • Outlined a testing plan, and made the client aware that any photos in the photo space would need to have arms and elbows, which does limit to some extent the types of images we can test

    Design Round #3. Determine restrictions of stock imagery & develop an A/B test plan

    design-3

    For this third revision, we created a formal test plan and outlined restrictions for swapping out images on the page, namely we learned that this particular design will always need to have arms with pointed elbows.

    Lead gen pages do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of converting users to paying members, and yet are easily able to slip into the world of spam-worthy design. I’ll report back on this page’s progress as we test it out in the coming weeks and months. Meanwhile, I’d love to hear your tips and tricks, where you go for inspiration for lead gen user experience, and any design debacles you’ve experienced in lead gen page design.

    *Design by my brilliant partners at jjomedia.com

    Fascinating:
Upgrade Flash to view this site properly