The homepage of your website is an essential aspect of your presence on the web. It is the first thing that people see when they visit your website, and it is the hub all visitors will go and return to as they are discovering you and your product or service.

From a design point of view, the following are the most important elements of a home page:

1. An aesthetically pleasing homepage keeps the user interested. Judgment is passed on the site within the first five seconds, so if it does not appeal to them they will stray away.
2. An easy to navigate homepage is essential to the entire websites success.  Make sure that they see what the site has to offer right away. You can lose a viewer very quickly if the navigation is difficult. The presentation of your home page has to be well laid out, allowing access to your different pages
3. You need simple calls to action on homepage and proper placement of a call-out. An easy to find button or text compelling the user to sign up for something or go to a certain page is important. This will drive traffic to the pages you find particularly meaningful and can excite the user.
4. Compelling copy. This is one of the first things the viewer takes in when visiting the homepage. If the copy is not intriguing and inviting to your viewer they will click out of your site. If the homepage content is confusing then the rest of the site will be harder to pilot.
5. A simple, yet effective way to share information is through social media icons.  Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube are all really important to have on your homepage because this is where you can create viral content.  If you find the content interesting, “Like” the page, “Follow us on Twitter”, look at the photo galleries in Flickr, and watch videos on YouTube.
6. Overall organization is a critical element to any homepage. All content on the page should be distinguishable from one another, allowing nothing to be repetitive. To have a cleanly organized page allows viewers to find content where it should exist.

Think your homepage could use some work? How about the rest of your site? Why not give The Discovery Communications Group a call. Fill out our contact form or give us a ring at 603-685-0111 and speak to one of our design specialists today about how we can make your website more effective.

“Geosocial” services have slowly integrated into our daily lives and routines. If you have to meet someone, there’s nothing easier than clicking the Maps app on your phone and knowing your route within seconds. If you’re vying to retain your seat as the Mayor of your favorite lunch spot, you make sure to never forget a check-in. Twitter can provide time, location and device information for your updates, and Facebook recently added a feature to include your current location in your status update.

Recent surveys by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project have revealed that 55% of Americans have used the GPS functions of their mobile devices, and 28% actively utilize “location-augmented activities.” These include general location and map services, check-in programs such as Foursquare and GoWalla, and social media platforms that include geographical locations in posts and updates such as Facebook and Twitter.

But what does this mean for our online security? The more information we are willing to share, the more conscious we must be in terms of privacy. Become familiar with the privacy settings of your social media sites. Who do you allow to view your profile? Is your Facebook page public? Can anybody read your tweets? Your privacy settings are an important start, but even the strictest of habits does not eliminate risk. Geolocation information can be included in the metadata of digital photographs taken by newer cameras and mobile devices. This metadata is retained during upload and can offer your home address by simply viewing the file information.

Flickr, one of the most popular photo sharing sites, has recently announced a new geofences feature that provides an aerial view of your intended sharing geography. The option allows users to customize specific locations, for example “School” and “Home,” that allow only friends and family within these geographic boundaries to view your uploaded photos. Flickr’s implementation is an ideal choice of providing an intuitive way to select your sharing boundaries without over-complicating the process.

Not everyone is so close knit that they can define their social lives within a mile radius of their home or place of work, so Flickr’s solution is not a cure all, but a well-needed bandage. By adding a service that goes beyond the normal security checkboxes, Flickr can begin to regulate the estimated 300 million geotagged photos the site currently hosts. Additionally, geofences can aid in the protection of minors, an audience which may upload photos without being aware of the sensitivity of data being shared.

Online security is crucial when it comes to social media. More and more, these social platforms are offering updated, more in-depth options for privacy settings. Be sure to review these changes whenever you notice an update and make sure you are comfortable with what you are sharing and with whom. It truly is a matter of common sense. Ask yourself, “Am I okay with sharing this to my friends? To my friends’ friends? To the world?”

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has released its 2011 annual e-business report. Each year, data is compiled from more than 70,000 customers through interview and survey processes. Partnered with ForeSee Results, a leader of customer satisfaction analytics, the ACSI is a highly correlative report, proving that companies with higher customer satisfaction level yield greater earnings and stock returns.

With a total average of 75.4, the rule of thumb is that any company that ranks above 80 points is considered excellent. That being said, search engine overlord Google topped the list with an impressive 83 and social media kingpin Facebook bottomed out the list with a startling 66 points. Find out where your search, social and news sites of choice came in this year’s report, what makes this year’s ranking more important than ever, and how the future will affect next year’s ACSI report.

Below is a complete list of e-businesses measured by the 2011 ACSI.

News Outlets – 73 (Group Mean)

FOXNews.com – 82

ABCNews.com – 77

USATODAY.com – 76

CNN.com – 74

MSNBC.com – 74

NYTimes.com – 73

The Huffington Post – 69

Search Engines – 80 (Group Mean)

Google – 83

Bing – 82

Ask.com – 80

Yahoo! – 79

MSN – 78

AOL – 75

Social Media – 70 (Group Mean)

Wikipedia – 78

YouTube – 74

Facebook – 66

E-business Total Mean – 75.4

Right away, we can draw some interesting conclusions. Search engines, as a whole, rank higher in customer satisfaction than both news outlets and social media by a substantial margin. Search engines hold a 9.1% lead over news outlets and a 12.5% lead over social media. This could be attributed to users, who have grown in sophistication, now searching more directly and finding results faster and more accurately. Facebook, Google’s largest competitor in terms of web traffic, trails by 20.5% in customer satisfaction and, as a whole, has the misfortune of harboring the least amount of satisfied users with a score of 66 points. Bing, Microsoft’s newest search engine, has climbed substantially since 2010, rising from 77 points to 82, the second highest score (tied surprisingly with the controversy magnet FOXNews.com). User-generated knowledge compendium Wikipedia stands head and shoulders above its social competition at 78 points and Ask.com made the most significant increase since the 2010 report, skyrocketing from 73 to an impressive 80 points.

Some of the 2011 ACSI report can be attributed to a number of known factors. NYTimes.com, down 3 points from 76 in 2010 to 73, was surveyed right as they introduced their ill-received paywall that now forces online readers to purchase a subscription. The Huffington Post has the lowest news site score and second-lowest score overall at 69 points. This could be due to the oft-heard criticism of biased reporting and the assertion of censorship. However, the Huffington Post should be acclaimed for being individually ranked, which confirms its growing and established readership base. MySpace, which was ranked in previous years, was omitted from this year’s report due to the great decline in activity.

Facebook – currently, it’s the be-all, end-all of social media for much of the world. However, it ranked the lowest of any reviewed site by a significant margin. Why is this? Friends and family spend hours at a time on the site, looking at pictures, commenting on statuses, creating events and chatting about anything and everything. The business world is surging its online market share by utilizing the platform and its excess of 750 million members, tapping new audiences and frontiers. And yet, a large percent of us are miserable, dissatisfied customers.

Quite possibly, this could be derived from Facebook’s near-monopoly on the market. Despite the unrest and discontent its users may harbor, it’s still the only hangout in town worth going to. Twitter is one of many aspiring social media usurpers but is still only a fraction, both in functionality (albeit by choice) and membership, of the total user base. Twitter was not measured by the ACSI due to the numerous ways in which the site can be accessed, according to the group. Google+, Google’s new social media experience, has been quickly climbing the charts in popularity, but the ACSI report was completed before its June 2011 roll-out.

Certainly, the rise of Google+ will impact the 2012 E-business Report, as will Facebook updates, search engine surges and news source structures, but just how so is yet to be seen. The full ranking report, along with several press releases, can be found at www.theacsi.org.

Here at the Discovery Communicates Group, all of our hearts go out to the 41 families of Fitchburg, Massachusetts who have been displaced after the Johnsonia building fire that occurred on June 13, 2011. More than 60 men and women have lost their home in the iconic Johnsonia building, which stood for more than a century in Fitchburg’s historic downtown Main Street. The six-alarm fire that engulfed the two top stories of the Johnsonia has left the building uninhabitable. An estimated 1,000,000 gallons of water were used to extinguish the inferno, and due to extreme fire, smoke and water damage, the building has been rendered unsafe, so occupants will not be able to recover their salvageable belongings.

Fortunately, social media is providing a meeting ground for action.

The Facebook group, Johnsonia Building Fundraiser, was created shortly after the fire and has since grown to more than 300 members. Led by advocate Andrea Neale, the group has already organized several planning committee meetings, in which to determine and assign fundraising responsibilities. The group has met several times at Destare of Fitchburg and has scheduled their next committee meeting for Tuesday, July 12. Anyone interested in helping the victims of the Johnsonia building fire are encouraged to attend and find ways to participate.

In just a week’s time, Johnsonia group members organized the Johnsonia Art Auction, which was held on July 1 at the Modern Edge Center for the Arts. During the weekend prior, children were encouraged to contribute to “the Pink Flamingo Project,” an outdoor art engagement as part of the Leominster Summer Stroll. These collaborative pieces were then auctioned off, in which all the proceeds went to the former tenants. The four pieces that were bid the highest will be on display for the entire month of July.

However, the largest and most significant upcoming event will be the Johnsonia Relief Fund Music Fest, slated for Saturday, August 6, 2011. The group is reaching out through Facebook to find bands, vendors and volunteers who want to help bring Fitchburg its most exciting festival benefit possible. A number of acts have already signed up but the organizers are still seeking additional bands to perform and are encouraged to contact Johnsonia Relief at johnsoniarelief@gmail.com. An official band line-up will be released as the event draws nearer. All proceeds collected from the event will be donated to the Johnsonia building fire victims.

Social media has made a tremendous impact for the families affected by the fire. By connecting online, supporters have already organized, scheduled several events and coordinated with vendors and officials that will contribute further to the cause. The Johnsonia building fire victims have lost almost everything, but thanks to social-minded individuals and the platforms that allow us to connect instantly, they can begin the recovery process all the sooner. Hopefully, as interest continues to grow, support and contributions will increase and provide the families affected with the funds necessary to rebuild.

What better way to commemorate the occasion than by bringing you our Top Trending Topic Tweets surrounding the #Tag #WhiteyBulger?!

There is speculation that the code will link to some sort of contest or historical piece of information. It will be interesting to see what The Utrecht Mint unveils with this QR campaign, but it will have to be something lasting since the coins will continually circulate through the Dutch economy.

What other ways can government agencies and departments leverage QR codes for promotions?

Will The United States see a similar campaign?

What are your thoughts on including online links on national currency?

The citizens of Vancouver are looking to undo the damage of the soon-to-be infamous Canucks Riot, which took place after Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. Canucks fans flooded the streets after a 0-4 loss against the Bruins, overturning and igniting cars, smashing storefront windows, looting and partaking in various other criminal acts. In the aftermath, vigilant Vancouver residents have taken to the web as way to organize and target efforts.

The Facebook event “Post Riot Clean-up” has garnered more than 11,000 attendees in the few hours since created. The event creators have coordinated with the Vancouver Police Department, which has permitted the event members to assist in the clean up process. The event provides its attendees with streets and locations that are in need of assistance.

The Vancouver Police Department has also played a social role in the Canucks Riot. With nearly 14,000 followers, the Vancouver Police Department Twitter account voiced its disappointment with rioting citizens:

In the hours since, the Vancouver Police Department has urged citizens to evacuate downtown, identified areas in need and thanked various groups for their assistance throughout the clean-up process.

Twitter account VancouverClean has also popped up as an updating service for those participating in the Post-Riot Clean-up Facebook event. The group has been providing positive, motivational tweets to encourage Vancouver citizens in the recovery:

But cleaning up the city is not the only concern for Vancouver citizens. The police department is encouraging Facebook and Twitter users to upload their photos and videos taken of the Canucks Riot and tag any identifiable participants where they can. Tumblr accounts have been created, including  http://vancityriotcriminals.tumblr.com/, which is aiding in the identification of Vancouver rioters. In an age where everyone has a camera in their pocket, the Vancouver Police Department’s use of targeting criminals is a nod to social media and the potential it has for law enforcement.

As the hockey post-season ends with a bang, the repercussions will surely be felt as more evidence begins to surface.

Now, let me preface this blog post by saying I am extremely anti-LeBron and anti-Heat (insert disclaimer about the opinions expressed here being mine and only mine), so I was all too happy to put this post together. Much has been made about “King James’” receding hairline in recent weeks, but those who are surprised that a man who looks to be twice his age is battling a growing forehead need to reevaluate their love for the former Savior of Cleveland.

Enough of my ‘Bron bashing, let’s see what the Twitterverse had to say this week!