The discipline of graphic design is not easily defined. It’s dynamic — always changing, fluid, and eager to embrace the next big thing (or to at least give it a try). And as design evolves, trends take shape. Last year, we saw the development of some distinct trends in design — particularly as related to the use of graphics for websites and social media. Some of these will still be hot in 2018, and there are some new trends emerging, too. Let’s take a look!
Social media monitoring can sometimes get lost in the jumbled word salad of social media marketing jargon: metrics, listening, analytics, intelligence, monitoring…They all sort of start to run together until you feel like you’re just too old for this whole thing. But you’re not. Social media monitoring is the act of tracking and watching what is being said about your brand specifically and your industry generally. Social media monitoring focuses on conversations, trends, and sentiment: what are people complaining about, celebrating and looking for in the context of your brand.
If you’re an inbound marketer, you know that sinking feeling. You wake up, stretch, start your coffee, and check your phone—only for your stomach to drop at that horrible phrase “algorithm change.” Depending on how long you’ve been in the game, you’ve ridden the ups and downs of the Facebook and Google algorithms as they throw constant wrenches into our carefully strategized content plans. Our friend Mark announced some changes last week, citing that one of Facebook’s major foci for 2018 is “making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”
Complaints and negative comments are a perpetual reality online. No matter how large or small, every bank or credit union will receive negative feedback online. Some institutions will delay or avoid engaging with the public on social media for fear of opening a Pandora's box of complaints. Others feel intimidated by the human power required to manage multiple social accounts, respond to direct messages, and tweeted questions that could be easily answered by searching your website. We're here to tell you it's not only doable, but that social media complaints are an opportunity for your institution to develop its brand, increase customer loyalty, and win new customers—if you follow these best practices.
It's not news to say that a blog is an essential component of a thriving business site. Blogs have long been established as indispensable and irreplaceable. This is great. The not-so-great flipside is that blogs are now ubiquitous. Everyone and their cat has a blog, and the internet is crowded with dry and listless business blogs that are lacking in personality, purpose, and context. So, before you slump right in to obligatory blogging with your eyes half open, make sure that you are blogging for the right reasons.
If you're looking to drive more traffic to your landing pages, congratulations! You are on your way to becoming a savvy inbound marketer who knows that landing pages are an opportunity for you to leverage content in exchange for contact information. You understand that sparkling, unique content is the key to enticing future brand ambassadors. So, let's call this an intermediate lesson. Below are 10 tactics to get more clicks to your landing pages so that you can start to bridge the gap between attracting and converting.
If you’re anything like the ‘old’ me, you spend too much time stressing about work you haven’t finished, and not enough time feeling satisfied about what you have accomplished. In a perfect world, I’d come to work each day with a surplus of innovative ideas and bring each one to fruition by 5 o’clock. But emails are endless, meetings are necessary and delays are just an inevitable part of business. Which is why, despite my best efforts, I still haven’t figured out how to squeeze 40 hours of work into an eight-hour workday.
What I have learned, (thanks to an awesome boss and a few thought-changing exercises) is how to use those feelings of angst and defeat to generate groundbreaking ideas and fuel strategies that I know my team can accomplish.
Your business website is the hub for everything you have to offer. An all-in-one center for your biography, your portfolio or services, your insights…pretty much all your bragging rights. You know what content is available, where to find it and where to go if you can’t. Here’s the catch – can your customers? How your website works is just as, if not more important, than how it looks.
We find ourselves in an age of digital technology and information. People are no longer popping into stores to see what’s available, instead they are searching online. Think of your website as the first impression your company gives. When a customer clicks on that URL they want to be greeted in a warm, friendly manner. Imagine if you clicked on a webpage and were directed to this:
