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Going Viral? Dramatically Increase Your Video's Chance

admin — Sat, 18 May 2013 12:57:27 +0000

Although there is no definitive way to make sure that a video goes viral online there are definitely a few concepts that people have found by dissecting the videos that have done just that. These tips lean on basic psychological principles that advertisers have been using for years and then leverage them through diffusion of innovation to accumulate a critical mass. Once there is a critical mass than the video’s views are self-sustaining and the only thing that really takes the video off of the pedestal is another video that supplants it.

There are three things that you can focus on if you are wanting increase your odds of your video going viral and becoming a success online. Briefly they are getting under your viewers skin, using psychological triggers, and then focus 100%. By using these in synchrony, although you can’t guarantee success, you great increase your odds.

Get under their skin

Figuring out what your customers or potential clients are interested in and already talking about will allow you to create a video that speaks to one of these topics. Make sure that you chose an interesting angle once you have the right topic and always be thinking about share-ability. Online videos are used for different reasons and everyone can spare a couple minutes to check out something interesting, just make sure that you can hold their attention once you have it. The is easier done if the video is entertaining, relevant, meaningful or shocking to your target group.

Use the pain points and triggers

Having a good understanding of the pain points and psychological triggers of your target audience will allow you to speak to these in your video. If a video resonates with the person watching it on an emotional level, in a positive way, than they will want to share the experience with their network and your video will rack up the views.

Keep their attention through intensity

You have the right topic and the right triggers, now all you have to do is distill the video to make sure that it is high octane and focused. Make sure that each video is only a few minutes long with one or two key concepts and deliver styles. The less the better as most people don’t like to sit and watch 5-20 minutes of video with mixed messages and different styles. To increase the viral tendency of your video break them up and make them intense.

Using these techniques you can dramatically increase your chances of creating a viral video. Make sure that you do your research and track your progress to get a full understanding of what works and what doesn’t for your specific audience.

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Content Strategy Tips For Your Website

admin — Mon, 13 May 2013 13:59:44 +0000

A lot of people are overwhelmed by the concept of developing and implementing a content strategy for their website. The thought of doing something different and putting yourself out there to market your product or service can be very challenging if you don’t have a framework for this strategy. A widely used approach that will help build this framework for you is known for focusing on the people, the process, and the available technologies.

The People

Even if you are just a one person business and lack the staff to increase your content creation plans, the key is to make a plan that can be implemented over a 6 month period. By planning, the production and maintenance of your content will seem less daunting, and if you can hire a person internally to work either part-time or full-time this is the best option. If this is out of reach you can just make the plan and then outsource any of the tasks that you don’t have the time or ambition to accomplish, as there are plenty of great virtual workers that are ready and willing to help out. Having a solid content plan and editorial calendar will allow you to add more people to contribute and get the ball rolling on content creation. Using a process and technology to leverage the process will accelerate your progress even faster.

The Process

With so many things to keep track of and get done, using a process is one of the only ways to get it all done without going insane. Creating content and sticking to deadlines is essential for any content creation strategy and not having a process can lead to devastating results. A process will help to make sure that everything is on schedule and that nothing gets left behind. It can also help to dissect a problem and close the gap so that it doesn’t happen again. You can create a simple process for every activity that you do with your content creation strategy and just iterate once you find a better method.

Leverage with Technology

The infrastructure that you can build using technologies and softwares will allow you to leverage all of your people and processes to do the work faster and more efficient. Using a website as you hub and then collecting all of your prospects’ emails will give you the ability to craft specific messages that can get in their ear when you need to. The more content that you can create and point back to your website the more people will sign up for your email, which will result in more business over the long run. Using project management and automation technologies will allow you to create a multiple of content than you would have been able to make otherwise.

Creating content effectively requires a proper content strategy that starts with people and gets leveraged by processes and technology. The more people that you can get working on your content the more that you can create, but make sure that you have a good process that is scalable before hiring too many people. Once you have a good flow of people and process integrate technology to take your content creation and management to the next level.

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5 Web Design Trends for 2013

admin — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:44:31 +0000

With the increasing use of mobile devices and the possible introduction of Google Glass 2013 is poised to change web design practices dramatically. Although it is difficult to predict where the future of our interactions with mobile devices will play out, reflecting on the possibilities will shed some light on the trends to watch out for in the years to come. Having the ability to reach people on all of the various devices from smart phones to smart televisions is an amazing feature of our integration with technology, but this leads to several website design requirements and techniques that need to be employed to ensure that your web presence and brand are uniformly represented. All of the trends seem to be converging or pivoting on a few key principles: valuable content, user experience (UX) centered and simplicity.

Here are 5 web design trends for 2013, that will shed some light on the direction that website designers are taking their clients, or that you should be taking your company, in the coming months.

Valuable Content

Creating valuable content and publishing it often is the centre of a website. This can be accomplished using all different types of media, but special care has to be given to understanding and optimizing the content for each different UX on each of the various devices.

The need is for you to create efficient, searchable, assessable, multi-platform content, so that your online efforts will be received and shared. Making the content then reaches the user in an interactive and visually stimulating way will be the key to your website design or redesign for 2013.

Simple Web Design for Interaction with Content

With so much information and competition people are in a state of constant content overload, and if something is difficult or not easy to interact with people simply won’t interact with it. To take full advantage of this you just have to simplify your website design. Not only will this increase the interaction with users it will help to make the process of optimization across multiple platforms that much easier.

UX is the Competitive Advantage of Web Design

The interaction and experience of the user and customers with your website is the most important factor when you are working with a website designer. Desktop optimized websites will continue to adopt a simpler user interface (UI) because it makes for a simpler and more efficient UX. This will increase the use of responsive designs or app style interfaces to help create the best user experience and form a competitive advantage through website design.

Adoption of the App Style Interfaces

The popularity of the app store and the app style interfaces is going to transform the standard desktop websites, as they begin to start imitating the interface of mobile apps. This will polish the website design from its rigid origins, and simplify the content while facilitating the formation of responsive web design.

Unification – Responsive Web Design over Multiple Versions

Whatever you want to refer to it as, responsive, adaptive, mobile first, or resolution independent, all of these are leading towards the unification of all versions of your website design into one simple and beautiful website. This website will look the same or adapt to the device that it is viewed on for the best overall UX.

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5 Great Questions to ask when hiring a Web Design Company

admin — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:51:56 +0000

If you were to do a search for a “website design” or “web design company”, you would be met with millions of matches. There are many great web design companies but your chances of working with one at random are not very good, so you should take the time to qualify the website designers or companies before deciding which one to use. Making sure that you hire a reliable and skilled website designer will make sure that your project comes in on time and to the specifications that you require.

Here are 5 great questions that you can ask before you decide to hire a web design company:

What is your website design process?

The best website designers involve their clients in the process at specific milestones, so that they can proceed in the right direction without the need for as much adjustment after the fact. They should have an interview or survey that they require you to fill out so that they can understand what your expectations are and gather some feedback on your likes or dislikes. Regularly meeting and discussing the next steps, is more of an individual preference and if you would rather be more hands-on or hands-off, finding a web design company that matches your needs will yield the best results.

How do you stay up to date on all of the latest design trends and technologies?

Good designers have to have their fingers on the pulse of new trends and design tactics. Keeping their skills up to date will allow all of their clients, including potentially you, to benefit from the knowledge and skills that will be reflected in the final product. If the web design process isn’t up to date you may have to get additional work done to your website before you would have otherwise had to.

What is the most important aspect of web design?

There are two sides to good website design and it is beneficial to get an expert in each to have the best possible web design; rarely one person can do both at the same level. There is the design side (flow, user interface, graphics) and the coding side (html5, css, functionality). A great web design company will have at least a person for each side to give you the best possible website for both look and feel.

Can you give me examples of your best previous work and your worst previous work?

Asking these questions will give you a sense of what the website designers are capable of, as well as some of the examples of conflict that has occurred in the past. By taking a look at the highest highs and lowest lows you get a full sense of the company and can make an informed decision about hiring them.

What is you conflict resolution process, if, say I was to disagree with your design?

With the best website designers there is a balance between fulfilling the customer’s demands and producing great work. It is difficult for the unsuccessful or new designers to discuss the drawbacks of a particular change that might cause conflict with a client. Unless you know website design yourself always hold the web design company’s suggestions as professional opinion.

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Clearing your head for website design: Great Motorcycling Roads in North America

admin — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:06:57 +0000

As winter in Toronto begins to take its hiatus the anual emergence of motorcycles on our roadways begins to take shape. Bikes of all styles appear and those brave enough to endure the last grips of winter-to-spring temperatures come out in droves.

Designing a complex website can take a lot out of you and meeting those deadlines can add a mountain of stress in your life. You therefore need a way to blow off some steam and regather your faculties so that you can tackle the next project that will start the process all over again. Taking a motorcycle ride for the afternoon or a few days will do just this. There is little else that is more freeing for your whole being than cruising down a great motorcycle route and feeling the wind flow whip past your body. For those times when you need to get away to refocus here are some great motorcycling roads in North America.

Florida Panhandle to the Keys

As the home of the large Bike Week in March there are plenty of great routes that you can take in Florida. Taking a ride down the US 98 east or the US 27 will give you some of the more less-traveled routes to enjoy a mind relaxing ride down, but for the best experience you have to start in Daytona and then jump on US 1 bearing south. Take this road through Miami to Key West for some of the wonders of nature. Visit http://www.motorcycle.com/events/florida-motorcycle-travel-destinations-88383.html for more information.

Alaska Highway

Although there are plenty of wildlife hazards, slow RVs and spotty road conditions to contend with, the rugged natural beauty makes this a must ride route. To begin your journey head to Haines and then head north, going through Canada, and you will link up with the Alaska Highway. There are plenty of service stations and lodging available and if you get a chance stop in the town of Chicken for a taste of northern hospitality.

Great Smoky Mountains Area, Tennessee

Make sure that you have your bike in good working order with very good brakes as there are stretches to challenge even the most experienced riders; including the Deals Gap with 318 curves in an 11 mile stretch. Most people enjoy a nimble bike for these twists and turns but any bike will give you a great riding experience. If you get a chance, make a stop at Shady Valley, which boasts a biker friendly area and close to 500 curves in a 12 mile valley.

Wyoming to Sturgis, South Dakota

The iconic Black Hills rally is a spectacle that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. Bikers from around the world head here every August for a biker party and some great riding. The routes around this area provide a number of sights including Wyoming’s Thunder Basin, Mouth Rushmore, and Devil’s Tower National Monument. With a seemingly endless open road you can be as close or removed from the group as you like.

Here is some more great info including photos and comments: http://www.motorcycleroads.com/75/674/Wyoming/Ride-the-Lasso-from-Sturgis-to-Devils-Tower.html

Pacific Coast Highway, California

Taking the ride in either direction from Santa Monica to Leggett will take you by hundreds of miles of beautiful California coast scenery. Avoiding Los Angeles and San Francisco will help you to keep the relaxing pace and enjoy the open road. With far less twists and turns than previous routes, the Pacific Coast Highway is sure to melt away any thoughts of HTML or CSS, and recharge your mental energy.

Cabot Trail - Cape Breton Nova Scotia

This road is a gold mine in Canada. I actually saw a moose as I came upon a bend. For some reason I honestly thought that moose was only to be found in northern Ontario. Well, somewhat north! Whether travelling with a group or riding solo, this truely is an experience to be had. Reminds me of Great Ocean Road in Austrilia, which is a bit outside of North America but well worth the 24 hour flight time and bike rental.

Fork of The Credits - Near Orangeville Ontario

This road seemed to be under construction forever, but it is a gem in our back yard. The road itself is not very long and I recommend stopping at the fork and going for a little hike. With lots of swooping bends and roller coaster type hills it is a nice road to please your senses. Be sure to chcek out the railroad near the top of the road and for sure stop for some ice cream!

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Do People Really Care About Your Ugly Website Design?

admin — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:47:43 +0000

The old adage “don’t judge a book by its cover” was to rebut our natural tendency to do just that by making assumptions based on appearances. Although it can get people into trouble, everyone still judges on appearances, even if it’s subconscious. Your website design is therefore needs to make a good initial impression on appearance and layout. With so much competition for the same goods or services you can’t afford to let a poor web design tarnish your brand and negatively impact your business. Finding a good website designer to help you layout your website and put relevant content up on the web will make a huge difference your overall brand impact.

The issue on aesthetics of website design is even being studied by and published by university students. In a recent study from Stanford University found that there are main factors that go into the design of a great website, but that credibility and trust are the main things that you should focus on. Making sure that you include all of the relevant components to link credibility with the appearance of your website should be your top priority. These factors include:

Real-world aspects: physical address, professional photos of staff, etc.
Ease of Use: caring enough about your customers’ experience to make it comfortable to navigate
Markers of Expertise: displaying any credentials and accomplishments, case studies or testimonials
Markers of Trust: transparency and factual information, honesty and keeping the promotional banners to a minimum
Individual User Experience: giving individual log-ins, allowing visitors to easily find what is relevant to them
Minimal Advertising: too much advertising damages credibility, but you will be able to get away with a few tasteful ads, make sure that they are all relevant though, work with a good website designer professional to determine just the right level
Mind the Design Details: misspellings and broken links are the two biggest things to watch out for, some others include outdated information, bad layout, and difficult navigation buttons

The ultimate goal of your website design, whether you use a website designer or not, is to allow it to build trust with your prospects and customers. Especially if you are selling directly on the website, you need to make sure that the user experience is pleasant visually as well as contextually. Even if you don’t want to hire a website designer to do all of the work, having an audit on your design by a professional website design GTA company, is recommended. They can help you to fully understand how all of the pieces fit together. Another great way to make sure that people like your web design look and feel is to get user feedback either through polls or by surveying friends and family. Your website reflects your company to the outside world and making sure that it is properly designed and looks great is important to any successful business.

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Website Design Optimization Techniques for Local Businesses

admin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 16:14:21 +0000

Most of the larger companies target users from all over the world, and the internet allows for this to happen effortlessly. But the majority of companies only do business locally and need to improve their only presence to attract their local customers that are online. There are a number of ways that this can be accomplished and by teaming up with a great website designer or website design company you can increase your local search engine optimization (SEO) and reach these people.

How Local Search Works

With the help of IP address locality and search history, the search engines are leaning more and more towards locally relevant content. The integration of the local businesses and their physical location on the maps are always high ranking in the search results. These can be triggered by implicit or explicit location searches. When your customers search for your business by type without putting in a city, as long as you have optimized for that search term you should be ranking in these results. For explicit local information, the customers have not only searched for the type but also included the city name in the search and are independent of where the user searches from.

Improving Your Website Design for Local Search

Here are some things that you can do with your website design and online strategies to increase your local search results and have more customers view your website:

Google+ Local

What was once Google Places has now evolved into Google+ Local. This is a great quick and easy way to ensure that your contact details, such as business name, address, phone number, images and location on a map, show up high in the search results when customers are searching for your company or company type.

Registering Correct Domain Extension

A country-specific domain extension can be a vital component to your getting in front of your local search results. If you already have a neutral domain (.com, .org, .net) than you can use Google Webmaster Tools to link your website to a certain geographic location, which will further increase your local search-ability.

Content: Business Address and Location Keywords

To make a clearer picture for website visitors and search engines as to where your business is located you can add your business address to several pages. This will increase the chances of being tied to a location and ranking higher for the local searches. Writing content that contains location specific keywords will further increase this link and your local search engine traffic.

There are plenty of techniques that you can use to improve your visibility by your local customers. Increasing the website design with an SEO web design company will give you the best results, as they can incorporate many other techniques such as: adding structured data, uploading a KML file, creating a Google+ Local page and teaching your or doing some link building. Planning out your content and making sure that the search engines know where you are located will give you the best results possible.

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Will Google Glass Effect Website Design?

admin — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:00:21 +0000

Google Glass is still in a beta testing state, but from the videos that are circulating around the web it poses much discussion around website design. As everyone tries to guess how this will play out there are a few themes and major thoughts that are emerging. The major concept that is being discussed is the minimal amount of information that can be displayed on the glass itself and the subsequent need to integrate with a mobile device for a richer user experience.

There will be more information on how Google Glass will interface with existing websites and apps, but for now there are two main thoughts: HTML5 and mobile integration. Using HTML5 there will likely just be another media query that website designers can add to interface with the Google Glass as it will display its own form of the website. The other thought is a symbiotic relationship with a mobile device where it pushes to the device to expand the view or the app pushes content to the Glass. Either way, there are a few restraints on the interface that leads to a few features that website designers can start to think about.

Features of Google Glass that will effect web design:

The limited screen size will naturally lend itself to minimal text which complements the experience with only the bare essentials.
The integration of the camera leads to the possibility of dynamic, context-awareness, that doesn’t require the wearer’s input to display information.
Keep in mind that the display is translucent and incorporate bold color and simple graphics for maximum clarity.
The spontaneous browsing of information that is gathered from a variety of sources and a need to rethink the website hierarchy beyond current responsive design.
Integration with the Android intent system, and learn how to format links for proper use with this system.
The free flowing transitional possibility of the interfaced devices that allows interaction and switching between one device to another as well as one app to another.
The ability to have a well-designed and functional app in front of a customer’s eyes for hours at a time, each day.

Although the capabilities of Google Glass is not fully realized, keeping the design features in mind when you are designing or redesigning a website will allow you to keep certain possibilities open. Making a responsive website that allows people to view and have a good user experience with your web design, no matter what platform that they are using, will increase your traffic and business. Google Glass may not directly affect the basics of website design; it does present a new opportunity to get even closer to your prospects or customers.

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Five Great Mobile Apps for your Business

admin — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:25:17 +0000

Most business people are in a state of constant change and excel in a rapid-fire environment. It is rare that people get to settle into a routine anymore and between the meetings, luncheons, and travel people always seem to be away from their desks and computers. This is part of the reason that mobile devices have seen such an increase in use. The mobility and accessibility that mobile devices offer everyone is incredible and by using the appropriate mobile apps you can increase your productivity while on the go. Here are five great mobile apps to make your business life easier.

Receipt Management - Expensify

Most of the companies nowadays run a reimbursement style for business expenses. When you are travelling or just bustling in the city it is difficult to keep track of all of the paper receipts and expenses; keeping personal separate from business. Expensify is a great app that solves this problem. Using this app you can sync credit card transactions with receipts that you capture with your mobile device’s camera. It can also sync with QuickBooks and Google Docs, and it is free for an individual business user. Click here to go to Expensify.

Viewing and Collaborating on Documents and Presentations – Box.com

Keeping track of version of documents and viewing them on the go is something that can cause a lot of problems. By using box.com you can read the documents on the fly, add comments, and view changes that your team made all with the tap of a finger. No more waiting to view or make changes until you are in front of a computer. With box.com you can even view and track how much time or how many edits each document underwent for a particular project. Click here to go to Box.com.

Keeping track of Travel Details - TripIt

Instead of relying on the printed itinerary, using TripIt will allow you to have access to your full schedule while bouncing around the country. You can upload and store all of your flight, hotel, rental car, and meeting information and TripIt will plan a route for you. All of the information on the flights, travel time, directions between each of the stops. If anything happens to change all you have to do is forward your email to your TripIt email and the app will automatically adjust your itinerary. Click here to go to TripIt.

Notes for the details – Evernote

Ideas and innovative thoughts can happen at any moment and what used to require carrying a notepad around now can be accomplished with Evernote. Evernote is a simple yet powerful way to capture and organize all of your thoughts. Whether you prefer text, audio, video, or just web clippings, Evernote has got you covered. The best thing is that you can access all of these thoughts from any device either online or offline (if you have synced the database). View Evernote site here.

Project Management when you are out or Busy – Insight for Basecamp

Keeping on top of all of the ongoing collaborative projects can be time consuming and hectic if you aren’t organized; even if you stay in the office. Using software like Basecamp can keep all of your projects in line and working towards the milestones. When you are travelling or need to check the status you can use the companion app Insight to check up or comment on a particular project. One drawback is that you need an internet connection to use this app but that is becoming less and less of a problem every day. Check out Basecamp here.

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5 Reasons Your Business needs Mobile Apps

admin — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 12:41:38 +0000

As the growing trend of people using mobile devices to access the internet continues to increase it is paramount that you take advantage of this opportunity. When you are considering your mobile marketing strategy there are several things to spend time and money developing but a mobile app may give you the highest return on investment (ROI) and should be considered your top priority; with mobile responsive web design as a close second. Here are 5 reasons to convince you that your business needs at least one mobile app.

Branding and Increasing Sales

Since most people look at their mobile devices over a hundred times a day, a mobile app can put your products or services only a click away. It is important to make sure that you make some aspect of your customers’ daily lives easier. If you can do this then your app will be used several times a day and keep your brand top of mind.

Reduce Printing Costs – Go Greener

A great deal of the marketing costs for brochures, business cards, and other print materials can be side stepped if you create a useful app. Instead of wasting the paper and cost you can create an app that can be downloaded at will and advertise to the customers personally several times a day.

Integrated Customer Service

An app that markets all day to your customers is valuable enough, but then you can add the functionality of customer service and service reminders. If your product or service requires updates or checkups than you can notify your customers though the app. Or if they have an issue with the product they can launch a ticket right from their mobile device for a convenient solution to their problem.

Build Relationships and Customer Loyalty

By regularly updating your app or providing a news feed you can keep your customers up-to-date. You can also get their feedback and engage with them regularly to foster a better relationship through the app. Make sure that you are transparent with your app’s purpose and capture as much data from the customers as they are willing to give to get the most out of this unique opportunity.

Innovate, Test, Iterate

Trying out new promotional tactics, getting feedback and then testing the iterations will allow you to innovate on the customer data at blinding speeds. Keeping track of as many metrics as you can will allow you to innovate more freely which could lead to breakthroughs down the line.

As part of a mobile marketing strategy mobile apps can be the central tool that you pivot everything else around. Getting into your customers’ and prospects’ pockets provides a very unique opportunity that you should take advantage of. Make sure that you have a website designer adapt your website for responsive mobile design and then point the mobile traffic to download your newly implemented app.

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