Google Takes Doodle to the Next Level

May 23, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Branding, Marketing, Web Design

Well Google has done it again, another great and unique “Doodle”.  They’ve altered their home page graphic for their search engine in homage to Robert Moog:

Robert Moog Google Doodle

 

A great graphic in it’s own right, but when I saw it I was wondering why there was a moving arrow pointing to the keys – so, being curious, I clicked, and instead of like most of their doodles going to a list of search items for Robert Moog, it started playing music!  So I clicked more keys, and got more!  I quickly learned that the whole thing was entirely interactive including the recording machine to the right, it could record and play back, wow!  Sure, the video for Valentine’s Day was cool, but entirely interactive? Wow.

Items like this really show just how much designers and businesses have to take their website interactivity to the next level if you want to REALLY stand out.  Having something that’s unique from your competition makes you memorable, and this is a perfect example of that!  Now, having said that, a professional corporate website would probably not want an interactive piano on it, but if you’re a more fun website why not have something fun?  A fun example for a client we’re just finishing up a website for is www.gearheadcountry.com.  Gear Head Country “is the show that features Canadian County Music songs that talk about 2 Wheels, 4 Wheels, 18 Wheels, and the Open Road”.  So we had fun with it!  We chromed out the page details, used gauges that look like the rev up when you go to click them, all kinds of fun stuff.  But would I use something like that on an Accountant’s website?  Certainly not! There’s a place for everything, and also a time NOT to do something.

So the next time you’re thinking of upgrading your website or online presence and want something different keep that in mind, make sure it’s appropriate to your industry, company culture and target clients.  And if you’re ever stuck for ideas feel free to contact us, we’d love to help!

Overlooked Networking Opportunity – Volunteering!

May 08, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Networking

There are so many different events out there, great causes, places to connect.  So many different choices and we’re always wondering, what’s going to really make the most impact?  It can often be near impossible to decide how to split our networking time most efficiently. Now, when you go to networking events, who do you remember the most?  The people sitting at your table, the couple people you spoke to briefly while grabbing your cup of coffee?  Perhaps.  But I bet you’d really remember the people working at the event – the lady that greeted you at the door, maybe the gentleman at the registration table, and of course the MC of the event.  Which is my point, a lot of the time our networking can be turbo-boosted by simply getting more involved.

There are times at networking events where I’ve felt not very memorable, coming a couple times and feeling like a new face each time.  Only upon getting more involved with the organizing committee, or the like, did I really start getting the “good to see you”‘s, or “how’s business going?”.  I was getting noticed!  It goes along the lines of “The more you put in, the more you get out.”

Another thing that’s great about it is that it can also be a great way to showcase your work, depending on what you do.  Are you a business coach?  Perhaps you can volunteer to lead table discussion exercises at an event.  Graphic Designer?  Maybe the group needs a refreshed brochure, or some sprucing up on their website.  There are lots of ways to help out almost any group if you ask, and then what you do will be showcased in front of everyone who attends!

So think about it the next time you head off to your regular networking event – how can you help pitch in?  Talk to one of those already volunteering and see how your expertise may be of use.

Choosing a Facebook Cover Photo

April 16, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Branding, Social Media

Last post we talked about Facebook Timeline, here I want to expand on one thought a little farther, what to choose for your cover photo.  There are two different main ways that you can go, simply a photo of something or you can make an image that’s fully branded.  We personally have opted for a bit of a hybrid, but lets expand on that a bit more.

So let’s say you decide to go with nice photos.  There’s a couple ways again here that you can go about that, and it has a lot to do with what sort of business you are.  If you’re a product oriented business, from baker to restaurant, retail to Realtor, you likely have product shots you can use.  Be that a picture of a cake you just decorated, one of your signature dishes at your restaurant, some of the products you sell at your store or your star real estate listing – choosing a photo can be a lot of fun.  It’s also a great way to keep your page nice and fresh as you can update it regularly with new items, creations or projects.  Here’s a great example of a cake decorator we know that used one of her creations as her cover photo:

Jeannette's Cakes

Great way to display your product, remain unique, and by changing it frequently be able to have an easy way to interact with your followers.  Every time you change your photo it will show up on their newsfeeds, so if they’re great shots hopefully you’ll get lots of interaction!

Alternatively to a photo, you can do fully branded images.  This one you may have to be a bit more careful with, officially Facebook has some “rules” for the cover photos, that being said I’ve yet to hear them enforced.  The official rules for cover photos are that they can’t contain:

    • Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
    • Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
    • References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
    • Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

You can still do some pretty good branding even with those rules though – and as mentioned, not sure how much they’re being enforced.  Coke is a great example of how their ideal branded images would look:

Coca Cola's Facebook Page

Looks snazzy and very much branded.  So there’s definitely a lot that you can do.  If you’re not careful it can also just look like a boring box with text in it though, so you definitely have to be creative – or find someone who is!

Regardless of what type of image you end up going with I’d say not using one is not an option!  Timeline is here, whether we welcome it happily or not, so if you want to look “with the times” getting an image up is very important.  If you need help getting your timeline up and running looking snazzy we’d love to help you out, feel free to contact us!

 

Your Page and Profile Ready for Facebook Timeline on March 30th?

March 27, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Branding, Social Media

Whether we like it or not Facebook timeline is coming – and it’s only 3 days away!  Facebook will transition all profiles and pages to “Timline” on March 30th, question is, will you be ready?  We’ve got a couple tips to have your new timeline look nice instead of empty!

So if you don’t prepare in advance, what would your timeline look like?  Probably something like this:

Facebook With Unprepared Timeline

 

But if you prepare you can have a lovely looking profile that would look something more like this:

Facebook page prepared for Timeline

Obviously the second option looks much nicer for your business!

There’s a couple of steps that you’ll need to follow.  For starters, you need to prepare your timeline.  If you do it before the automatic transition you can visit Facebook’s Introducing Timeline page.  Here they provide a brief explanation of the major differences and on the bottom bar, presuming you have not previously pre-viewed timeline, you can select “get timeline”.  This will send you to a place where you can give timeline a test drive on your profile/business page without making it live yet.  So you can fiddle and play around without everyone seeing all the tweaking that you’re doing.

So what do you do once you’re in the editing screen?  Two big things you’ll want to do, check and make sure your profile picture still works and maybe update it if it doesn’t, and also add a cover picture.  In case you’re not super familiar/comfortable with facebook highlighted below are the areas I’m talking about:

Facebook Timeline with Highlighted Profile and Cover Photo areas

You may already have a great profile photo, if you do great, that part’s done.  But if you had a professionally designed side-bar style image for the old layout, it may not work well any more.  Here you can either put a headshot or if you’re more that just a one-person operation a logo (preferably in a square orientation!) may be a better option.  Keep in mind, this image will be what people see in their newsfeed when you’re doing any posts – so people need to associate the image with your company whatever you choose.

The big question is for a lot of people, what kind of image to you put as your “cover” image?  There’s two different ways you could go.  You can have one designed for you, like the one we’ve designed for our page, or you can put up pretty much any nice picture.  For photographers this can be a great way to showcase a recent excellent shot you’ve taken, for someone with a product that they make/distribute you could put a shot of that as well.  I know a cake designer that’s put a shot of some beautiful cupcakes that she decorated, all great options.  This can be a very cost effective option as well as you can have your page look professional without paying someone to make custom images for you.

One thing to keep in mind, if you decide to design a custom image do know that sometimes when the page loads only part of your cover image will show until someone scrolls up.  So make sure you keep that in mind when you design/have your image designed for you.  Here’s an example of what I mean:

View before scrolling up:

Facebook page prepared for Timeline

View after scrolling up:

Facebook Timeline Full Height Cover Image

As you can see, that’s a pretty significant portion of the image that people may not even see!  So if you design an image without thinking about that it’s possible your visitor may not see the whole thing or they may think your image was poorly designed because it gets chopped awkwardly.

So there you go – when timeline comes you can be ready for it too and keep looking professional – even if it’s just a couple of picture changes!  If you or someone you know isn’t super facebook savvy and wants a hand with their profile or page we’d love assisting!  Check out Facebook’s web page specifically about Facebook Pages if you have questions too.

4 Tips to Increase Your Profitability

March 21, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in General, Networking

One of the biggest problems of being self employed is that you wear all the hats – CEO, CFO, Office Manager, HR, etc, etc.  So how do you balance all that and still manage to sell your product or service and do all the work?  I’ve learned a few tips along the way that I try to implement myself as much as possible, let me share a few of my favourites with you.

#1 – Network.  Pretty simple, you don’t meet new people, you won’t expand your client base.  This isn’t saying that you’re going out there to meet all your new clients, but network with other business people and build relationships and that’s how you make great referral partners.  Think of it as a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” idea – build relationships, send them referrals and it will come back to you. Check out some of our other posts on networking for more information, particularly the one “The Importance of Networking”.

#2 – Pick 2 of the Three of Price, Service and Quality.  One thing that I was told growing up is to think of a triangle when you offer a product or service.  In each corner there’s one of either price, service or quality and you can only pick one side of the triangle to focus on.  So if you want to offer your clients great service and exceptional quality you can’t compete on price or you’re business is going to fail.  Offering high quality and service can cost you more so it should also cost your clients more.  Thoughts like that apply to either of the other two pairs as well.  Pick two, stick with them, and the third will land where it needs to.

#3 – Time Track.  How many times have you reached the end of your day baffled as to how it ended but you didn’t get anything accomplished, yet you felt busy all day?  Think of it like budgeting, if you don’t track your money you don’t know where you spent it and you can’t figure out where you went wrong – it’s the same with time.  If you don’t track your time you don’t see where your wasting it, also, if you track your time you track the time you’re wasting and you’re less likely to waste as much!  We’ve started using a free service called Toggl – I’d highly recommend it!

(Edit May 11, 2018) Want a great outline of what Toggl is all about? Here’s a great article online about it: https://thefreelanceeffect.com/toggl-review/

#4 – Outsource.  You can’t add hours to a day – but if you take away some of the things that you’re working on that someone else could do for you and for less money, it’s a no brainer.  It could range from hiring a house/office cleaner so you can work instead of cleaning the floors to hiring a bookkeeper – it doesn’t have to be hiring staff.  Traditional outsourcing (be that local or international) may work as well, but simply hiring someone to take some of your administrative tasks off your plate can free up a ton of time.  If you’ve started #3 already and keeping track of your time you should also be able to see the areas that are taking up too much time and good candidates to send off to someone else.

So if you’re feeling like your profitability is a bit lacking lately give a couple or all of these points a shot and see how it helps!  Good luck!

How do you answer “So, What’s New?”

February 28, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Networking

We’re all used to the common questions when networking tying to start up a conversation.  Last week I focused on a common question of “So What Do You Do?” and another common one I get all the time when networking is “So, What’s New With You?” super common but more often then not answered incorrectly which could end a perfectly good conversation before it even has a chance to start!  Probably the most common answer that I hear is “Oh not much, how about you?” and I say FAIL! (Not that I’ve never done it myself of course!)

There are two things I want to point out here, one really great way to answer the question and another to avoid.  A great way to answer the question is to, oh shock, say something new you’re doing!  What I usually do on my way to networking events is to think of some of the great stuff I’m working on for clients or fun projects that could relate to what I do professionally.  Last time I was asked the “What’s New” question I went on to say how I was excited to be designing my sister-in-law’s wedding invitations.  It’s nice and related to what I do, gives an example of how my services can be used and flows nicely into an easy conversation topic.  I think after that we may have talked briefly about weddings.  The importance here is that we kept talking, the conversation didn’t die.

It’s always good to think about things like this before you get to your networking event though, have a few “pocket answers” ready to pull out when you need them so you’re not tempted to say “not much”.  It shows that you’re actually doing business by having something to say you’re working on!  Really, it’s also good to just have a thought of one or two new things you’re working on all the time for those impromptu meetings while grocery shopping or picking up your morning cup of coffee.  A quick little snipit to show you’re trucking along.

One thing that you want to make sure you avoid though is an overwhelm answer.  Saying one or two things that you’re working on can lead to great conversation, but sharing a huge list may give the impression that you’re TOO busy.  Why would someone refer you a new client if you can barely keep on top of what you’ve already got?  Saying that you’re super busy does mean that you’re doing good and likely profitable, but people can also take it as a “don’t refer me any business, my plate’s full already!”  Having a list of projects you’re working on to use in conversation is great, just don’t use the whole list on one person!

A couple of thoughts for when you’re networking next to make sure you’re entering some great conversations instead of stopping them before they have a chance to start!

How do you answer “So, What Do You Do?”

February 22, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Networking

I’d have to say, next to asking your name or how you’re doing, one of the most popular questions you hear when networking is “So, what do you do?”  Knee jerk response is generally to say what your job title is, what you ARE, so answers like “I’m an accountant” or “I’m a house cleaner” are the norm.  It not only can end the start of a conversation, but it leaves the asker of the question to fill in the blanks and really decide what you do according to whatever experience or stereotype they may have already.  Would you want that?  I’d think not.

So how should one answer the popular “What do you do?” question then?  Instead of saying what you are tell them what you DO.  So instead of accountant, why not tell them how you specialize in relieving stress for business owners by taking care of their numbers instead of them?  Or for the house cleaner, why not tell them how you specialize in helping people to make their homes a healthier place to live?  Much more compelling and leaves less to imagination!  This can also springboard naturally into a great conversation about your company and how you’re awesome at what you do and why your a better choice than your competition.  It would be natural for someone to ask more information about what you do if given a statement like that!

To come up with ideas of what to say to answer this question take a moment to make a list.  List the ways you make your clients lives easier, how you add value to their business or personal life by what you do.  Stumped?  Why not email some of your regular clients that love you and ask them?  Added bonus of that is you could end up with a testimonial to use in your promotional material.  Or ask your teenage daughter/son what they think you do – clarity can often come from someone close to you!

So the next time someone asks you what you do think about your “list” and answer their question – don’t tell them what you are, tell them what you DO!

Google Doodles – Why Play with a Logo?

February 14, 2012 | By Anna Kouwenberg Posted in Branding, Marketing, Social Media

The cute Valentine’s Doodle from Google really left me thinking today.  I wondered, “hmm, why would a company like Google start changing their logo, just for the fun of it?”  The marketer and business women in me started wondering why would they employ people with the sole purpose of playing with their logo?  So I decided to ask Google.  I typed in “Why Does Google Doodle” to see what I got, and I got great answers.  It connected me to a page on their website in their “Doodle 4 Google” section about Doodle History, and I got to learn all about how it started and why.

To answer my question of why would someone play with a great brand, here they explain it well – having fun is part of the culture at Google, and that is reflected when they have fun with their logo.  Think about it, if you’re a company that has a casual and fun culture, why not reflect that online?  When it’s close to St. Patrick’s Day, why not change the background to green?  Christmas, why not put a Santa hat on your logo?  This type of “fun” may not work with more serious companies, but if you’ve got a fun culture let it come out online too, then you’ll attract the kinds of clients that appreciate that!

Everyone knows when it comes to making an impression on your clients or potential clients the importance of your brand is paramount.  Your brand is generally your first impression with your client.  So if you want your brand to be serious, make sure your online presence reflects that.  Stick with the grey colours, clean logos, think “IBM”.  Fun company with a casual culture?  Make sure you do fun stuff on your website, blog or twitter account, incorporate fun colours – keep it lively.

Your brand, logo, total feel throughout all points of contact with your client needs to reflect your company or you’re not going to attract the types of clients that will appreciate you.  And we all know what happens when we attract clients that DO appreciate us – they treat us well too!  They don’t balk at your fees AND they pay them…on time!  Everyone wins!

So think about it the next time you’re preparing a marketing piece, or even putting together your new twitter background; is it reflecting you well?  If you’re not sure we’d love to sit down with you and help you brainstorm ideas – we’re huge on integrating marketing pieces!

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