An effective business blog has an abundance of components that contribute to its success. These mechanisms allow for readers to interact with content in an optimal way. Optimization is key to not only becoming a useful source of content within your industry, but a useful source of content within search engines.

Every blog needs to have the basics, a set of stand mechanisms that make content user-friendly and easy to consume. Standard mechanisms include: a title, featured images, supplemental imagery, categories, date and archives. Additionally, your blog can contain a popular posts mechanism and a homepage filter that allows your latest blog content to be featured directly on your website's homepage.

Moving past the standard options, every successful blog in the construction products market must have these components: an integrated/non-third party blogging platform, social sharing options, and a lead generating mechanism.

One of the earliest discussions of a blog within your company should include where the blog will be housed. While external platforms do exist, an internal platform is the most effective. The reason for this is that a blog contains content, often more content than your website. That content is keyword-rich and has tremendous potential to gain readership.

If the blog is not attached to your website, you are forcing users to visit another site to seek information, an unnecessary step this day in age. Not to mention, this third-party site can potentially become more popular in search, taking over or essentially working against your corporate website. Therefore, the best business blogs are a tab within your corporate website where information is most accessible.

The second most important component is social sharing options. Every piece of content your company produces should have the ability to be shared directly to social media. There are several plug-ins that allow you to add this feature to your blog and it is vital. Content should not be stagnant, it should always have the ability to be easily shared throughout the web. With the ability for users to share your content, your content gains authority within search, allowing your ranking to increase.

The last, and arguably most important, blog feature is a lead-generating mechanism. The construction products market is a difficult market to quantify leads. Often leads are initially contact forms or sample orders. Therefore, every piece of content produced should have some form of lead-generation within it. This varies depending on your brand but often the mechanism is listed at the end of each blog and allows a reader to: schedule a lunch & learn, order samples, download a white paper/eBook, or subscribe to an email list. This mechanism allows a reader to become a potential lead by capturing essential information.

With the addition of these components a business blog is guaranteed to be more successful. But business blogging is not easy, there are also a variety of steps required before committing to its creation. Coming soon..."A Beginner's Guide To Blogging For The Construction Products Market."

We have all heard the saying "content is king," which refers to the importance of content in modern marketing participation. But what is quality content? The quality of content depends on a number of things such as your industry, your audience, and even your prospective clientele. Although social media outlets may differ for what works for any given company in the construction products market, every company can benefit from a business blog.

Business blogging offers a plethora of advantages. One of these includes thought leadership. Now, thought leadership can be difficult to achieve but what a blog allows your company to do is showcase your specific expertise. For instance, if you sell an exterior building product, your blog may focus on: the history of what you sell, interesting projects, what are its benefits, your unique testing, sustainable attributes, etc. A business blog allows your company to produce a voice, that may otherwise not be vocalized.

Another advantage of blogging is referral traffic. Social media content creates powerful staying power within search engines, but even better than social is a blog within your website that brings readers into your home base. Your home base is your website, it is where users come to learn and be pushed farther down the sales funnel to become potential leads.. An active blog, one that is uploaded on a weekly basis, is continuously pushing keyword-rich, valuable content through Google. Search is still an incredibly important component of any marketing strategy.

Lastly, a business blog can enable lead generation when embedded with a lead-generating mechanism. For instance, at the bottom of each post you have a series of samples, CEU courses, contact forms, etc. that an interested party must fill out to gain or access more information. These are high quality leads, as they are from users seeking information directly from your site, versus buying lists or other options for gaining leads.

There is no one-size-fits-all mentality when it comes to social media, yet a business blog is something that can benefit anyone. In order to product a proper business blog there are a series of must-have components. Stay tuned... The Must-Haves Of Business Blogging coming soon!

For most companies social media presents a unique set of challenges. Your business may struggle with how to participate in the social sphere. Countless services exist with the promise of helping you achieve a more efficient social media presence. Here are a few free resources that can assist your company in their social media know-how.

Tweetdeck is a third-party application that helps you "Tweet like a pro," the company boasts. The program allows you to add your brand's Twitter account to a designated dashboard. Within this dashboard you can schedule tweets hours, days, weeks or even months in advance. You can create columns that show your notifications, mentions, trending topics, searchable keywords, and more. Tweetdeck is particularly helpful for any social media participant who has multiple accounts to manage. All accounts can be featured in a single place, where your tweets are uploaded for an entire day within minutes.

Fotor is a website that allows users to create custom social media covers, banners, and posts. Although some of the options require payment, the majority of options are free and allow a company to create designs without having to remember the parameters of each website. For instance, Facebook shared media is best viewed at the parameters 940 pixels by 788 pixels, while media shared within a Twitter post is best viewed at 1024 pixels by 512 pixels. Parameters not only vary by social outlet, they change quite often as well. Fotor gives you templated posts and covers that allow any company to create designs without the hassle.

Audiense is another essential Twitter-based optimization tool. The site allows you to track in depth analytical data from your Twitter account including unfollows, inactive accounts, influencers, and a following and followers bio tag cloud featuring top keyword usage. The data is incredibly detailed, even showing the language and gender demographics of your network. It is a helpful tool for those seeking to go beyond the basic analytical data provided.

Social media is often consisted a daunting task, with its own set of challenges. Although an abundance of external tools exist, these will hopefully increase your company's social media savvy.

There is a common misconception regarding social media and business, that because of our personal experience using social media, using it for business is lateral and therefore easy. Now while the outlets themselves are incredibly user-friendly and do not require much skill in terms of utilization, it is the strategy from which your social media is built that is difficult. And without a comprehensive social media plan your efforts will ultimately fail.

Mistake One: No Initial Plan

Often companies feel immediate pressure to join social media and in so doing they create a series of outlets for where they believe they should be, usually sticking within the big three: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. But, what is actually required prior to joining any outlet is a series of research methods used to determine your most advantageous outlets. This can include competitive and audience research, goal establishment, and analytical requirements/ROI. These methods save valuable time determining the most appropriate outlets for your individualized company.

Mistake Two: No Time

With grandiose plans, come massive disappointments. For instance, companies often join these outlets and can be successful at first due to immediate interest in time investment. But, over time that tends to waiver and more and more companies realize they do not have the time to properly invest in producing and distributing content on a consistent basis. What then happens is companies abandon their social media, becoming inactive on the various outlets.

Mistake Three: No Content

One of the major issues that companies continuously have with social media is content creation. Content is king, queen and jack, and is the most important aspect of social media participation. Content can vary but the best content has a series of elements that will allow it to be consumed and shared. Social media content should have one or more of these elements, it should be: original, useful, shareable, and contain media (video, photography, etc.). Companies struggle in their ability to produce valuable content, which leads to their social media suffering.

Mistake Four: No Growth

Social media is adaptive. It was created for personal use and then later adapted to business use. It is continuously evolving and expanding. There are always new outlets and new methods for reaching your audience and a successful company changes that initial plan to fit the needs of their client base. That being said, not every new outlet is appropriate for every business to utilize, but research and commitment are imperative to social media growth.

Social media may seem inherently easy but too often companies fail in their efforts. It is often useful for a company to seek external resources for consultancy or management. Marketing agencies with social media focuses have the ability to not only create social strategies but produce the content necessary to participate. For more information visit our homepage.  

With over 1 billion users as of 2018, Instagram has emerged as one of the most influential social media platforms today. Whether you’re an influencer, company, sponsored blogger, celebrity, or a regular person, we all manage to find our way onto the platform, sharing videos and photos. Over the years, many have mocked the notion of Instagram filters, believing that by using them, you are carefully showcasing a particular aesthetic while hiding honest, unfiltered documentation of one’s day-to-day life. And while that is one way to look at the idea of Instagram, it completely overlooks the fact that Instagram has developed into an art over the years.

What exactly makes a good Instagram account? Aesthetics.

The most successful instagrammers today rake in followers by the dozens because they simply know what content to create and what will enhance the overall look of their Instagram. Contrary to what many believe, a lot actually goes into producing an Instagram post. As people, we crave meaning and answers; we look for themes, and we enjoy continuity. Hence, why, to us, an Instagram aesthetic goes far beyond merely “throwing on a filter.”

Content creation on Instagram is a process that involves one actively sifting through different photos and videos to decide what would look good on their feed, and making the adjustments to produce a perfectly polished piece of work. Aesthetics can be anything: Picking a primary color, using the same filter, or even posting content within the same context, such as regularly posting your outfit of the day (#ootd) or posting photos when you are traveling.

The goal is to create an aesthetically-pleasing work that coincides with a consistent Instagram feed and your brand.

In fact, when you create an Instagram, you are establishing your own personal brand—whether you actually mean to do it or not. We all have our own personal brand: messages we wish to convey, particular images we gravitate towards, and/or certain color palettes that we enjoy more than others. An aesthetic is essentially part of one’s brand.

As someone who spent their middle school years practicing HTML coding to perfect their MySpace profile page and their high school and college years scouring Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for content, growing up to become a social media manager seems like an occupation that would come naturally to me. Though many people today have adapted to the language of social media, there are stark differences in using social media for personal purposes and using it for the sake of social media marketing.

It’s so easy to type up a status update or a tweet and send it out when you’re working on your own account. As a matter of fact, one thing to understand about social media is that when you’re using it for personal purposes, it’s just that: personal and for entertainment. When you’re using it for marketing, you’re actively working. This is where the line between business and your own personal life become blurred.

Voice
Copywriting is both an art and a science. From a marketing perspective, the content that you produce needs to be well-written and interesting while speaking to the audience that you’re targeting. This also means that whatever brand you’re writing for must be written in the brand voice, something that is carefully developed. When you’re writing in the name of a brand, your intention is to take on the identity of that brand while you’re using their social media accounts. When you’re posting personally, there isn’t any careful curation involved since you’re writing in your free time for your own accounts. People don’t typically have brand voices, as their names are not brands themselves.

Analytics
Let’s talk analytics for a second. A big part of social media managing is analytics; you are regularly checking to see how your brand’s social media presence has grown over any length of time. Growth can be determined by looking at the follower growth, engagement, and even social reach (which isn’t an exact science, but still an interesting statistic to see how influential a post is depending on who interacts with your content). When you use social media personally, you don’t need to check the analytics (unless you’re very interested in data).

Hashtags
These are a very important part of social media, as they are used to log any post made on a particular social media outlet. This means that, by searching a hashtag, you will have access to every post that was made under it. Hashtags are used across multiple social media platforms, but originated on Twitter. Hashtags can be used for a variety of reasons ranging from sharing memes to mobilizing social movements to starting a marketing campaign. In the world of social media marketing, hashtags provide a plethora of benefits to the brand you’re representing. Some examples include: boosting brand awareness, increasing your follower count, engagement, and social reach, and it directly links you to your audience. Personally, hashtags can be used for the same things. The main difference here is that rather than trying to start a movement under a particular hashtag, you’re going to be contributing to a pre-existing hashtag.

Scheduling
When you post on your personal accounts, everything is very in the moment. You aren’t thinking about when the perfect time to post is, you just want to share something and move on with your life. When it comes to social media marketing, it’s a totally different story. Depending on the social media platform and your audience, there is always an ideal posting time that should attract the most attention. Some people use programs that will determine the best time to post.

Consistency
When you post personally, just like with posting times, the number of posts per day don’t matter. You can post something once a week or you can post multiple things within an hour—there’s no formula for that. Social media marketing requires you to post frequently and consistently, since you need to remain in contact with your audience in order to grow your business.

Social media is something that many of us grew up around; it’s a language that many people today are confident in. Social media for marketing, however, is a different animal. When you boil it down to the basics, posting personally is anything you want it to be. You aren’t managing a twitter or a facebook for anybody but yourself. When you’re using social media for marketing purposes, everything is carefully curated and intentional in hopes of growing your brand.

Let’s talk fan-made works for a second, particularly fan art and fanfiction. There have been plenty of arguments questioning whether or not fan-made creative works should be considered valid in the world of content creation. In fact, fanfiction has often been referred to as writing that doesn’t require much skill, since the entire concept of fanfiction is to take an already-existing work, such as a TV show, comic or book, and write your own story. Fanfiction doesn’t even necessarily have to stop at rewriting a particular scene in a work that you dislike; you can write entirely new storylines, or even extract existing characters and place them in an entirely new world of your own creation.

The world is literally your own oyster with fanfiction, though it isn’t particularly popular in many writing circles. There are plenty of published figures, such as George R. R. Martin and Anne Rice, who discourage fanfiction for reasons that range from copyright issues to the fact that these characters and worlds are already someone’s own creative work. Similarly, fan art is also regarded as “not real art,” as the inspiration is derived from something already existing.

As someone who currently makes a living writing, and has written fanfiction for the better part of 13 years now, I’ll tell you this right now: both are valid and should be taken more seriously.

Allow me to back up to when I first started writing at the age of 12. I never considered myself someone who enjoyed writing growing up, but I did enjoy watching cartoons and critiquing them by taking down notes as to what can make them much better. As a middle schooler, I’d picked up an interest in—don’t be surprised here—anime. Specifically Naruto, a manga (Japanese comic) turned anime that is regarded as the Holy Shounen (a genre of manga and anime geared towards boys) Trinity. This series ran from 1999 all the way until 2014, and raked in millions of fans across the globe, myself included.

At the time, the plot was interesting enough: the titular character, Naruto, is a young orphan who is striving to be the top ninja in his village and, through pure willpower and his plucky personality, manages to achieve his goals through the power of love and friendship. Paired with all of the action scenes, and the crazy plotline that spanned nearly two decades, there’s no question as to why Naruto is part of the Holy Shounen Trinity. As a middle schooler, I loved the show. It was the best thing since Sailor Moon to me; however, there was just one thing that bothered me to no end.

I abhorred the way all of the girl characters were written.

Why was it that the main female character of the series was written as this vain, emotional being whose every decision was determined by the actions of her love interest? Why did she have a love interest who treated her so poorly and got away with being a literal sack of garbage for all 700 chapters of the manga? Probably the most offensive thing to me as a middle schooler was the fact that all of the women were noticeably physically weaker than the men. And, mind you, this is a ninja story where everyone has powers. It didn’t make any sense to 12-year-old me why the women didn’t shine as brightly as the men.

That only left me with one option: I needed to just rewrite the character, and her interactions with the boys. And so I did. I wrote hundreds of stories and posted them online. I rewrote scenes, offering this female protagonist the youthful feminine firepower that I believed she deserved. Was she knocked unconscious in this one particular scene in the comic? Not anymore! Did that boy disrespect her and make her cry in canon? Not while I’m at this keyboard. I didn’t even stop at rewriting scenes either. Sometimes, I created completely new stories in new worlds with the same characters.

The best part about the experience was that there was a huge community of people who agreed with me, and even liked what I wrote! Those encouraging comments were what pushed me to continue writing and, since I also read a lot of fanfiction, my skills as a writer began to develop more. I carried around journals, where I was able to jot down ideas at a moment’s notice to refer to at a later time. The steps typically associated with the creative process became second nature to me, before I even realized what I was doing. (I learned this years later, in one of my earlier advertising classes in college. I was very pleased to learn this tidbit.)

The hobbies I’d spent years investing in had became something that was marketable.

Fanfiction was the catalyst that eventually led to my writing career. It fueled my passion for writing, and proclivity for the arts. For me, the creativity didn’t just stop at writing either. I dabbled in fan art and fan videos as well, and though my foundation was based in writing, I had developed skills as a graphic designer as well as an illustrator and a video editor.

Take for example this fan-made graphic design I made for a show called the Legend of Korra. Uploaded onto my Legend of Korra tumblr page, it earned over 2,600 likes, reblogs, and comments. Experiences like this allowed me to develop photoshopping skills that I still use today for hobby and for work.

Even as a social media manager, I grew to understand how online communities worked because I knew exactly where to post my work, when to post it, and how to do it.

There are pieces of fan-made works around the world that have made cultural impact, and have also required a lot of time, effort, and skills. Take for instance J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series: in 2009, theatre students at the University of Michigan put on a fan-made musical entitled, A Very Potter Musical. The full-length show featured original music and lyrics, and was even turned into a book.

Fun fact: Did you know that the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy was originally a Twilight alternate universe fanfiction? Of course, there were major changes that had to be made, such as the characters’ names but it doesn’t refute the fact that an entire best-selling book series was inspired by the Twilight series.

Contrary to what others may feel about fan-made works, the creativity that is stemmed from fan art and fanfiction opens many doors, and can also provide new skills that you’d be able to use anywhere.

Regardless of how you feel about fan-made works, the main point of the matter is this: they exist, and they provide inspiration to hundreds of thousands of people every day. Even if it isn’t necessarily an “original” work, that doesn’t negate the fact that a person went out of their way to create fan art, fanfiction, etc. Because even if you don’t consider the idea original, that doesn’t mean that there weren’t any skills in the creation of the work at hand. Furthermore, these skills that can be developed from fan art and fanfiction can be turned into something marketable. It can land you in college and it can help get you a job.

In closing, take this from your resident fan art/fanfiction enthusiast-turned-writer: There is absolutely nothing wrong with fan art and fanfiction. It’s another vessel for creativity, and allows you to flourish as a creative. Take the craft seriously because who knows where it’ll get you someday. You may end up writing the next big thing because of it.

It happens from time to time. One day, you’re bursting at the seams with so many ideas, and the next, you can barely put a thought to a sheet of paper. Not many people open up about experiencing creative burnout, but everybody goes through it. Are there ways to prevent it? Are there ways to overcome this stifling feeling? Absolutely!

Creativity is a resource that we as people can always rely on; however, it requires maintenance and replenishment. Otherwise, you’re going to drive yourself into the ground and it’ll be that much more difficult to stand back up. Nevertheless, there are a variety of different strategies that one can implement to handle this in a healthy manner. Here’s how you can overcome and possibly avoid creative burnout.

Write Down Your Ideas
As a creative, you’ve most likely heard this from others, but it’s easily one of the best things you can do for when you’re stuck in a corner. Carry around a notebook—it doesn’t have to be a thick, leather-bound, five subject type book—and whenever a thought pops up in your head, make sure you write it down. On those days when your creativity isn’t working with you, refer to that book. Something that you wrote down ages ago can possibly start a creative spark from within. You don’t even have to necessarily write it down: draw it out! Do something that will get your thought out of your head, and onto paper.

Observe Anything And Everything Around You (And then possibly write it down)
Creating is a presentation of learned experiences and more often than not, we are inspired to create by experiences that we’ve had before. This is a good opportunity for you to take a moment to look at everything around you, and to take it in. Are you somewhere new and you’re up for exploring? Do it! Don’t be afraid to venture out and observe the world around you. After all, that’s what’s going to be helping you in the end. Try recording what you’ve seen, learned, and felt in your journal.

Communicate With Others
Have a conversation with people. Sometimes, the best material that you develop stems from a conversation that you might have had with a stranger. Experiences are our best teacher, so try listening to others.

Keep It Moving
It’s very easy to sit and obsess over something that you can’t quite move past; however, in this case, keeping yourself active is important for the creative process. If you’re stumped on something, try working on something new. It’ll require you to switch gears, and it will inevitably refresh your brain. And even if you don’t want to work on something new, try taking a break. Take a walk, take a nap, or go watch a movie—the point is to get out of your current headspace. The more frustrated you become, the more difficult it will be to produce quality content.

Think Of Ways To Reduce Stress
Burnout is a result of stress, so the best thing you can do for yourself to keep burnout at bay is to learn how to manage it. Meditation is a fantastic way to practice mindfulness and it can eliminate stress that is weighing you down. Take breaks when necessary, do something you love, talk to people you love—if a project seems too big for you to handle, you can even say no. The point is to acknowledge that it’s important for you to take care of your own mental health.

We’ve seen it far too many times. Someone posting something questionable into the black void that is the internet in the past only to have it come around and biting them in the worst way years later. Take, for example, the infamous UC Davis pepper spray video, in which a police officer pepper-sprayed a handful students during a protest.

The video that was spread throughout the virtual web ignited a PR nightmare for the university, which ultimately cost UC Davis more than $1 million. The school paid approximately $175,000 for a team of specialists to try to eliminate all traces of the incident on the web. However, like most things on the internet, the offending post quickly resurfaced with a vengeance, casting the university in a less than favorable light. The attempt itself seemed foolhardy because, as we all know, once something is posted onto the internet, it’s difficult to get rid of.

This doesn’t just affect large institutions like UC Davis; it can impact the everyday person. With the smallest bit of information, it’s possible for someone to steal your identity. Perhaps the most startling revelation is that personal information can even be accessed by a simple Google search rather than social media.

There are plenty of reasons why one would pursue deleting their online presence, whether you want to better protect your online privacy or remove something embarrassing. That brings forth the million-dollar question: Can you actually erase your digital footprint?

Now, most people have been conditioned to believe that your online posts are going to stay on the internet indefinitely, no matter how many times you try to delete that content; however, there are methods you can employ to significantly reduce the size of your digital footprint. Everything starts once you begin sharing personal information on the internet.

A Visa survey found:

• Nearly half of the participants revealed their birthday on social media
• 29% listed their phone number
• 20% shared their home address
• 14% revealed their mother’s maiden name
• A whopping 7% even disclosed their social security number on social media

Some ways to help combat a potential breach of privacy include:

• Deleting inactive email accounts
• Searching yourself online and requesting for search engines to remove any information about yourself
• Unsubscribe from all email lists and text message alerts
• Have your phone company list you under “unlisted” so your personal information isn’t easily accessible
• Adjusting the privacy settings on your social media
• Being mindful of what you post

In short, the answer is yes. And no. While you can ultimately control what goes up and what gets taken down, the reality is your digital footprint will always exist. However, you can take precautions to ensure that your privacy isn’t invaded.

Over the years, social media has been regarded by many as a place where people are seemingly soulless and unfeeling. Anonymity gives every internet user a bit of courage to say and do things that they would never do in person. And while this ultimately points to an age of cyberbullies who thrive off of viciously attacking people, this also brings up an important question: as social media users, how prevalent is empathy? And, from a marketing perspective, how important is empathy for influencers today?

As someone who was brought up in an age where my middle school days were spent coding to customize my Myspace profile on my old, clunky PC and my university days could be filled with whipping out my smartphone, and scrolling down my Twitter feed to see the latest viral cat video, I’ve noticed that we as people have become more empathetic through social media. I’m not the only one who thinks so either.

According to a study conducted by the Pew Research Center, people who use Facebook frequently receive more social support than other people. Additionally, Facebook users are reported to be more trusting than others, have more close relationships, and are more politically engaged than those who either do not use Facebook or use it infrequently.

And despite the reputation social media receives for being this seemingly black hole of negativity, a 2013 study revealed that teenagers found social media garnered more positive experiences than anything else. With social media, the younger generation are developing deep friendships and are building their own confidence.

Social media users are also reported to experience a fascinating phenomenon often referred to as “the cost of caring,” where exposure to adversities faced by others increases stress levels. It could also explain people’s need to help whenever a particular hardship is publicized on social media.

In the past year or so, empathy has become a buzzword for marketers in the industry. Many brands today strive to create content that invokes empathy, especially since the biggest generations, Millennials and Generation Z, are fluent in the language of social media. In fact, 39% of Millennials have been reported to learn to view the world around them in a new light after watching a YouTube clip. Social media combined with empathy is a very powerful tool when used effectively, and the marketing world is well aware of its power.

Brands have found success in launching campaigns where the product or brand being advertised is not necessarily the main focus, and that most of the attention is being given to the message the brand is trying to advocate for.

Case in point: Dove.

Dove is known as a brand that has given a voice to many people who don’t fit the mainstream beauty standards. The brand recently took to social media, inviting women to talk about their own #BeautyBias. The campaign was well-received by the general public. This wasn’t the first time Dove produced campaigns that utilized an empathetic strategy either. Dove has become one of those brands that knows how to use empathy to not only market their brand message, but to also invoke inspiration by giving a platform for people to talk about their hardships.

Taking the very basic human feeling of empathy and invoking it using a different method, in this case social media, only means that people are still as empathetic as they were before and empathy has found a way to live digitally.

Do you order pancakes or burgers from IHOB? In case you don’t know what’s going on in the world of rebranding, IHOP, also known as the place you hit up to wash down stacks on stacks of flapjacks, in an elaborate marketing ploy, recently announced that it was officially changing its name from IHOP to IHOB. In the beginning, people assumed that the B meant breakfast, which was understandable.

However, nobody was prepared for when it was revealed that the B actually stood for ‘burgers.’ And, like clockwork, the internet exploded, offering its two cents to the change. As expected, social media users did not hold back.

This isn’t the first time a brand tried to get a fresh new image, and unfortunately fell on its face in the process. In fact, here are a few examples of rebranding disasters.

BP

In 2000, in an attempt to convey an image of environmental conscientiousness, BP redesigned its logo. The “Helios” logo replaced the one they had used for over over 70 years, and the redesign cost the company approximately $211,000,000. Needless to say, immediately following the great marine oil spill of 2010 caused by BP, the Helios logo became well-known for all the wrong reasons. Greenpeace even challenged people to redesign the logo once again, only this time in relation to the spill.

Gap

In 2010, Gap revealed its new logo and the reception to the reveal was less than warm. The change was enough to enrage dozens of loyal consumers.

One facebook user took to the web, sharing their thoughts in one particularly scathing post: "This is the worst idea Gap has ever had. I will be sad to see this change take place. If this logo is brought into the clothing [store] I will no long[er] be shopping with the Gap. Really a bummer because 90% of my clothing has been purchased there in the last 15+ years."

The backlash was so strong that the brand worked to restore its old logo.

Radio Shack

RadioShack made a decision to rebrand to “The Shack.” Millions of dollars were spent advertising the rebrand in an attempt of attracting a younger and trendier audience. Unfortunately, the move made RadioShack look like an old, washed-up company trying to come back as hip and cool. The idea of a rebrand in itself wasn’t terrible; it was the execution that failed Radio Shack.

Picture this.

The nearest clock strikes midnight, and you find yourself in the parking lot of an abandoned K-Mart, underneath the only lamp post that isn’t flickering. The store’s lot is full of potholes and cracks, all of which extend towards the neighboring lot, where an old Chinese buffet once stood. A little ways across the street, you spot a playground; raindrops from the most recent shower have collected on every inch of the playground. There isn’t anybody nearby, but if you listen closely enough, you can just envision the joyous screams of neighborhood kids clambering on the jungle gym.

A sensation of unease washes over your body, raising the hairs on the back of your neck, though you can’t exactly figure out why.

You’ll notice that, in certain spaces under certain circumstances, you’ll experience a feeling of things being slightly off. An altered reality, if you will. The most interesting thing about this is that this isn’t an uncommon occurrence. It’s a liminal space.

Liminal spaces are something that have always existed, but haven’t exactly had an official term. The appearance of the space in question isn’t what’s so fascinating about the liminal space. It’s the feelings that are created when a particular design is interacted with outside of its intended context.

The word “liminal” is derived from the Latin word “limens,” which means threshold. When you’re interacting with a liminal space, you’re quite literally standing on the threshold between two realities. For example, a rest stop on the highway is designed to be just that. A rest stop between your place of departure and your destination. These areas are not meant for you to stay in for very long. In this case, your realities are your place or origin and your destination, while the threshold is the journey, the rest stop included.

Once you step outside the rest stop’s intended purpose by staying for much longer than you usually would, you begin to experience the sensation of “reality shifting.” This sensation can occur in many places too: empty train stations, stairwells, schools during summer break, laundromats at night...the list goes on.

Perhaps the most interesting about liminal spaces is that our reaction to them is reflective of our dependency on functional design. Viewing a space within an accepted context is what we as humans innately look for; however, outside of that, in a liminal space, we lean away from it because it lacks context and purpose.

When it comes to design, we crave a rational explanation for the existence of a particular space and, when we can’t come up with one, we avoid it altogether.

Technology today has developed to the point where what was once unfathomable decades ago is now a possibility. Entire libraries of information are accessible from a device that can easily fit in your back pocket. Cars are being built with the ability to not only operate off of renewable sources, but also some even have the ability to operate without a driver. Entire houses can now be locked, and light fixtures can be activated, via smartphone. In the medical field, the possibility of 3D-printed body parts are being explored so that hospitals are able to treat more patients who can afford the price tag of a particular procedure.

We’re approaching an era where everything and anything is possible through technology. Having the technological know-how to solve decades-long problems is like taking a breath of fresh air. However, if you’re a fan of sci-fi, or have seen any kind of sci-fi, you’ll understand that there are downsides to getting carried away into the world of technology.

In Jurassic Park, the drive to creative realistic reptilian creatures from the Mesozoic era resulted in the recreation of life-like dinosaurs that have no problem eating people. In WALL-E, people became so dependent on technology that they lost the ability to walk or think on their own. In the Netflix series, Black Mirror, dozens of horrifying scenarios occur because of the presence and reliance of advanced technology.

The most recent kind of technology that has slowly been making its way into the market is automated tech. This type of technology provides a way to perform certain tasks without ever having to actually do said tasks. The idea is to increase productivity; while your tech takes care of one task, you can fully commit yourself to another. In theory, it’s an amazing idea.

However, there are always concerns regarding new technology. For automated tech, the biggest question is, what does the future look like?

Some would argue that automated design takes the human aspect out of simple things, like cooking food, for example.

Recently, a fast food joint, CaliBurger, installed a burger-flipping robot named Flippy whose primary job was, as its name suggests, to flip burgers. In San Francisco, Zume Pizza, a pizza chain, introduced two robots: a pizza-making one and a salad-making robot.

Regardless of what the robot is doing, there have been concerns that have to do with income inequality. The argument is that robots can replace millions of workers, driving up the unemployment rate. In 2017, the Pew Research Center found that 75% of Americans they surveyed believed that it was “somewhat realistic” for robots and computers to eventually do jobs that are currently being done by people.

With the growth of automated technology, should we worry about design that excludes humanity?

In 2016, the University of Birmingham developed a high-tech robot named Betty. Betty’s high-tech Artificial Intelligence-driven software allowed her to effectively navigate her environment. As an experiment, she worked as a trainee office manager at the Transport Systems Catapult in Milton Keynes.

As it turned out, Betty performed the more monotonous tasks at work and freed employees up to perform jobs that they actually enjoyed. As a result, work became more interesting and fulfilling for the human employees.

Can it be possible that an automated robot helps people feel a little less like robots and more like humans?

It’s an interesting notion, and one that expands the possibilities of automated technology.

Hostile architecture, also known as defensive architecture, hostile design, unpleasant design, or defensive urban design, is all around us; however, until recently, the topic of this design trend had been largely unnoticed.

It isn’t difficult to tell whether or not a design element is defensive: Windows with decorative spikes to prevent pedestrians from sitting, benches with large armrests in between each seat to discourage the homeless from sleeping in a public space, and trees that have installed barbs in the branches to stop bird droppings from falling onto parked cars—what do all of these features have in common? In recent years, hostile architecture has become a hot topic on social media and in the world of architecture. Is it another form of gentrification? Is it to ensure public safety? Is it just for aesthetics? The controversial topic has collected hundreds of thousands of opinions across the web.

In its truest form, hostile architecture can be described as a type of design that is used to control people’s behavior. Like most design, this form of architectural design is used to dissuade people from engaging in certain behaviors that a piece of architecture may or may not have been designed for. Such examples include anti-skateboarding handrails and ledges, which are equipped with studs that are known as “skatestoppers,” floor studs that are installed in little nooks outside of buildings that homeless people typically sleep in or rest in, and water sprinklers that activate with no other purpose than to discourage people from loitering.

Though hostile architecture has, for the most part, been seen as having a negative impact on its surrounding environment, there are some instances in which these designs help improve the condition of its space. Two prime examples are anti-urination devices, also known as urine deflectors, and anti-littering devices. Despite the positive impact these particular installations have made in their communities, a larger, more prevalent issue still exists that ties into discrimination and social justice.

Lawfully speaking, not much can be done with hostile architecture on private property. And while there are plenty of hostile architectural designs implemented on private property, the problem regarding public accessibility rises when benches and window sills are installed with sloped surfaces and studs in an attempt to manage human engagement. Such features bring up the issue of accessibility and the public’s right to public space, urban or otherwise. And does designing these spaces in such a manner pose as an infringement on human rights, as these architectural elements essentially isolate certain demographics whether it be the homeless or a skateboarder?

Many critics believe this is the case.

In 2018, British artist Stuart Semple (the same Stuart Semple who created the world’s pinkest pink, most pigmented, flattest black, and most glittery glitter), launched a social media campaign inviting the public to place identifying stickers on examples of hostile design.

2018 is here, and that means that a new wave of social media trends is expected to come in. Regardless of whether the newest fad comes in the form of an outlandish meme or YouTube’s newest golden child, the fact of the matter is that change is coming. There have already been signs of certain social media trends that are expected to rise in 2018, but in case you were unaware, here are six trends to keep an eye out for this year.

The Rise of Augmented Reality

In 2017, Apple announced the arrival of the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X. Unlike its predecessors, both devices are fitted with the A11 Bionic chip. The chip allows users to experience augmented reality. Though augmented reality is currently used primarily for mobile gaming, there is a possibility that more social media platforms will try to incorporated AR technologies as well.

Increased Investment In Influencer Marketing

You’ve probably seen these kinds of ads on social media: A highly influential public figure on social media puts up some kind of promotion on their Instagram page. As it turns out, this kind of marketing, influencer marketing, is a multi-million dollar industry. This kind of marketing uniquely appeals to Millennials and Generation Z (Gen Z’s), who not only make up most of the world’s population but also have a purchasing power that is growing stronger by the second.

More Live Streaming

In 2017, more social media platforms were getting into live streaming culture. Social media apps like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook gave their users the ability to live stream. Sports games, important government events and speeches, television programs, and even university graduations were being live streamed as well over social. This trend isn’t merely a 2017 thing; this year, streaming is expected to grow even more.

Marketers Will Focus More On Generation Z

With an increase in influencer marketing and a hyperfocus on social media, marketers are expected to hone in on appealing to generation Z. Gen Z accounts for all individuals who are 22 and younger, according to Adweek, and they are expected to account for about 40% of all consumers by 2020.

Brands Will Become More Active On Messaging Apps

These days, most people in the world are connected through social media and data moves faster than ever. Therefore, brands are required to keep up with the flow of information by growing their presence on social media. As stated before in previous points, the majority of consumers today are either Millennials or Gen Z. To put things plainly, the best way to reach out to these groups are to be active on messaging apps and social media. Retail brands are taking advantage of messaging apps, as they find it faster to communicate with their audience, making response time instantaneous.