Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category

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The Benefits of a Twitter Custom Background

Monday, June 28th, 2010

The most important part of branding a Twitter profile is the use of a custom background. A customized Twitter background has become a must whether you are an individual or a business. One of the benefits of a Twitter custom background is that they reflect your image. Along with reflecting your image, they also help you to shine in the crowd.

If Twitter is being used to promote something, having a custom background will provide an exceptional marketing opportunity.
A perfect tailor made Twitter background can give any average company a great corporate image. There are far more benefits of a Twitter custom background than you probably have ever thought of.

Here are some of the benefits of a Twitter custom background.

1. A Twitter custom background legitimizes your profile:
A well designed Twitter background is the best way to legitimize your profile or a business Twitter page. Leaving the right impression in the minds of visitors is one of the benefits of a Twitter custom background designed exclusively for your company.

2. It provides you and your company free advertising space:
The pre-made Twitter backgrounds are used by almost everyone using Twitter and it becomes very monotonous for visitors to view the same backgrounds repeatedly. Having a beautifully designed custom made background for you and your company makes visitors stop at your profile page. This pause time acts as free advertising space.

3. Increases the number of your followers:
One of the benefits of a Twitter custom background is that an appealing and informational profile background allows you to attract more visitors, increase your network and add more followers to your twitter profile.

4. Adds weight to your tweets:
Tweets are useful for developing new relationships, announcing offers and promotions etc. Your business is bound to miss out on more than half of the benefits of advertising on Twitter, if your profile does not have an attractive background along with valuable messages. With a personalized, custom background that is appropriate for your company, you can gain instant value and create an impact on the users.

5. It allows you to add more information and photos:
You can store limited information on the basic, pre-made Twitter profile backgrounds. Having a custom background will allow you to add photos, contact information, information about your company etc.

6. Allows you to send direct marketing messages:
Sending direct marketing messages in your tweets is a very risky task as there is always a risk of losing your following. Having a customized background image allows you to send direct marketing messages freely. Choose the most important messages that you want your visitors to know and communicate them through your profile.

A custom twitter background allows you to present anything you like to your visitors. It not only helps you to establish your company’s brand or your brand, make your profile legitimate and publish contact as well as other important information but also helps you to differentiate you Twitter account from the remaining accounts.

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What Is A Blog

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

by Joe Burnett

A blog can be described many different ways. It can be a log of our life or it could be news about a topic. It could even be a bunch of facts and tips about a topic. Blog Facts
1.It is short for weblog
2.Blogs are like a news real of online articles
3.Many people have there own blog
4.The best blog host are Blogspot and Wordpress
5.Blogs are becoming the next big thing after the social media blast
6.Social media might crash after the future blog blast(Double B)
7.Many people make a living from blogging they are called probloggers
8.There will be social media melt down (S Doulble M D)because people will contact each other though blogs
9.46% of bloggers blog under their real name
10in name.Bloggers should post new content about everyday and only 13% do
11.Only 35% of bloggers focus on one topic. So if you create a blog you can talk about many different things.
12.Just 13% of bloggers get atleast 100 hits aday.
13.Many bloggers cheat and post there blog on another blog by commenting
14.Bloggers that do that normaly get caught and will have to buy a new domain name to get good traffic, so if your a blogger don’t do that!
15.In 1998 there were only 23 blogs

About the Author:
How To Come Up With A Blog Topic
What Is A Blog
Blogspot Vs. Wordpress

Posted in Blogging, Branding, SEO | No Comments »

Building your Business Brand on Twitter

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

Building your Business Brand on Twitter

With Twitter becoming one of the fastest growing new web sensations since Myspace or Facebook, every man and his dog are getting on board Twitter and using it as a cost effective (Free!) global marketing tool.

Businesses are Tweeting their way to popularity, creating brand awareness at lightning speed, and driving traffic to their actual website or products, more effectively and quickly than traditional paid advertising.

But like any business, traditional or online, professional branding is essential.
And when I talk about branding I am not just referring to the way your Twitter page looks, but more importantly, the name of your Twitter account that appears.

Twitter accounts are quickly becoming like online real estate.
We have seen the importance and value of having the correct domain name.
I myself have sold domain names that cost me little over $8 for more than a few thousand dollars less than a year later. Domain names are the modern real estate, and Twitter accounts are no different.

So, if you are considering starting up a Twitter account to drive your business through the internet, you need to start at the start, and establish the name that reflects your business, or more importantly, is your business name.

For example, our business Devision made sure we established http://twitter.com/devision and then branded the colours and background of our Twitter account to reflect our website www.Devision.com.au.

By claiming the Twitter handle early we ensured our clients could find us easily.
The other advantage of obtaining the correct Twitter handle is that the search engines pick up on Twitter accounts and will list your Twitter account and your Twitter account’’s description on their directories.

For example, type into Google ‘twitter Devision’ and you will see we list up the top, with our description visible.

And as your Twitter account also contains your website address, the cross link will in turn increase your page rank, and therefore your traffic. On average, all my websites I have set up Twitter accounts for have had a 65% increase in traffic to within a week, and the number of visitors grows as the number of Twitter followers link up with me.

the other importance of claiming your Twitter handle is to ensure other people or imposters don’t claim your name first, as anyone has the right to any name currently available on Twitter, whether it relates to them or now.

In fact Twitter handles have become so sought after and valuable that an ‘aftermarket’ website called Tweexchange has been established where user names can be bought and sold, and some of these names are selling at $100,000 or more!

So make sure you get your Twitter handle before moving on to the next step of business branding….

Creating a Twitter brand image for your business

OK, you have established your Twitter Handle and you’re ready to go. Before rushing in you need to first develop a brand strategy, starting with completing your Twitter Profile. Make sure your profile reflects your business in a short paragraph. As mentioned above, your profile appears on Google so ensure it contains the correct keywords that reflect your business. My theory to writing a good profile tag is think of if you had to tell someone you have never met before what your business does, in one sentence. For instance I do website design, so I would say something like ‘Devision offer cost effective professional graphic design, website design, and website hosting solutions throughout Australia’. That would then become my profile on Twitter, and those keywords such as ‘graphic design’, ‘website design’ are found on Google searches, attracting visitors to my Twitter account and my website.

Once you have completed your profile we move on to your image. Now, if you are not a design expert doesn’t mean you can’t have a professional looking Twitter account. Many graphic design and web design companies, (such as Devision!) can quickly design a professional background image for your account, and help set up the correct colours to blend in with your business. Alternatively there are plenty of websites such as Twitterimage and Twitpaper that also provide this service for you.

Your profile/bio image graphic (called an ‘avatar’) should be your logo or closely represent your business. Don’t upload an avatar of a photo you have found online and like…make sure it is a true representation of your business, as this is usually the first think people will see when they are on Twitter, so make they can recognize you!

Promoting your Twitter account

Promoting your business with TWitter doesn’t just have to be online.
Revert back to traditional marketing methods as well and add your Twitter account to your business cards, your email signature, on Powerpoint presentations and of course on your corporate website.

Twitter may or may not be just another online fad, but at the moment it is one of the best free online promotional tools you can use for promoting your business so go out and ride the Twitter wave!

And yes, you will find me at www.twitter.com/devision !

Of course, we keep all our best Twitter secrets for our clients!
So if you want to really know how to promote your business or make easy money with Twitter or social networks, contact me at www.Devision.com.au

© Article by Chris Bourke @ Devision Design Australia

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Posted in Branding, Site Promotion, social networking | No Comments »

Is Branding Relevant to Small Business?

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Most small business owners/operators would probably agree that developing a stand-out brand identity is an essential part of the marketing package for corporates and large companies.

Many would add that branding is not that important for small businesses and see it as an additional expense on the P&L. So they head off to the local printer or graphic designer who designs a logo (sometimes even for free) that gets used on stationary, vehicles and other marketing materials.

From our experience in this field, we find that most logos designed for small businesses are simply graphic devices and not actually brands in the true sense of the word, and portray little about the value proposition of the company, its personality and service promise.

In actual fact, development of a meaningful, representative and outstanding brand identity is just as critical for small businesses and if properly executed, can actually be a powerful competitive advantage.

For corporates, an effective and powerful brand is a ‘must-have’, simply in order to be in the game.

t may not necessarily differentiate them but it does at least give them parity with their competitors.

Unfortunately, some corporates still don’t understand the value of a great brand and have cruddy logos that are, in short, embarrassing and doing nothing for their businesses.

But there is significant value to the small business that has the vision and commitment to invest in having a professional marketing agency develop a meaningful and appropriate brand identity.

A brand identity is more than just a visual symbol or logo design – it defines your company’s unique service promise, builds lasting brand recognition and invokes positive recall.

A strong brand enhances your company’s credibility by integrating your brand strategy with consistent graphic application across all market and customer contact points.

Think about this – if most small businesses have weak branding, then by developing a compelling and effective branding package you can position your company ahead of your competitors in the mind of your target market.

A strong and effective brand can definitely be a competitive advantage in the cut throat world of small business.

To develop a strong brand identity, your marketing agency needs to work closely with you to understand the needs of your customers and prospects.

They need to explore suitable graphic elements and branding metaphors for the logo device, develop appropriate colour palettes and provide guidance on how to effectively apply your branding and logo design in specific applications.

Your goal should be to ensure complete brand integrity. If the brand development process is executed correctly then your company will stand out from the mass of small businesses that simply couldn’t be bothered, or more likely, don’t know any better.

Professionally designed brands, usually most visibly represented by the logo device, tell the market a visual story about your company.

It speaks of attention to detail, professionalism, pride and investment in your company, presents your unique value proposition and helps you to stand out above your mediocre competitors.

Article by: Wayne Attwell

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How to Pick the Right Domain Name for Your Website

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

by Chloe Davies

Ask any online marketer what their domain name means to them, and they will automatically tell you that their domain name is their company’s identity. It tells surfer everything they need to know: who they are? What they do? What their product/service can do for them.

It essentially acts as a summation of your company’s web identity, so making sure you pick one that accurately describes you is vital for your digital marketing strategy.

For this reason we recommend that you pick something that is memorable, distinct and original. One that stands out from the rest in your product niche, but also at the same time efficiently reflects your company’s products/service.

So how do you decide which is the right domain for you?

Well the first thing we recommend, especially if you are interested in incorporating SEO into your web design, is to pick a domain name that is SEO friendly.

But as with all things, this in itself can lead to more problems when it comes to choosing your domain. You see, you are just one of many companies online, who have undertaken the task of finding a URL that is SEO friendly.

So trying to find one that is distinct to your product niche and that has also been left untouched can be difficult. The competition is fierce.

But you can overcome this. You can offer your domain a uniqueness presence. Take the following details for example. Each can help make your decision easier.

Brand: as we said before your domain name is your websites identity. It represents who you are to the entire marketing sector and what you are trying to achieve as a company.

Saying this, your brand essence can also play an important factor in what domain you decide to choose. 

All your brand is, is an extension of your company’s identity. It is another means of allowing your surfers to recognise who you are and what you do.

So if for example you are a property investment teaching company, within your domain name it needs to mention the phrases ‘property courses’ or ‘property investment.’

Length: which do you choose? A short domain name that is easy to remember and type into your browser or a long domain name that will enable you to incorporate SEO and explain your product?

Both of these have got their benefits. It is just a matter of deciding which one would best benefit your website.

One way you can have the best of both these worlds is to set a word restriction of up to 67 characters. By doing this, you can give your domain name just enough description length so that it is not obscured, but a clear cut off point.

Saying this, if you can keep your domain name to under 67 characters that will prevent surfers from making any errors when come to type in your domain name.

Hyphens: similar to the length of your domain names, hyphens can bring both its advantages and its disadvantages.

On the one hand, using hyphens can help you to get the domain you want whilst making your keywords more accessible to SEO e.g. propertyinvestment.com to property-investment.com.

But then on the opposite end of the scale, if surfers forget to include them, they could either be taken to another company’s website, or they won’t be able to find your website at all.

Domain name type: when picking your domain name you need to decide what you want your top level domain to be.

All a top level domain is, is your domain names extension for example .com, .net, .org, .us or .biz.

Now most companies choose to go for .com but there is nothing necessarily wrong with using any of the others we have mentioned above. In fact, with .com being such a popular domain source, it can be quite competitive to get your domain name with them so choosing one of the others could ensure you get the domain you want.

So take the time to decide what domain name best suits your website, and make sure you consider all the above pointers. Do that and you can offer your website the best in domain representation.

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How to Create a Bad Website and Frustrate Your Visitors

Sunday, February 15th, 2009

By Jason OConnor (c) 2009 

If you’re a sadistic kind of webmaster or website owner and have a burning desire to royally frustrate and anger your site visitors each and every time they visit your site, these three lists are just for you. If you want to have a terrible website that looks bad, works horribly and breaks fundamental marketing rules, read on.

First let me explain why there are three lists. One way to look at any website is to break it up into three equally important segments; design, technical and marketing. In other words, every site on the Web contains these three components. 

They all have a design or look and feel (design), they all have to be on a server and coded properly to be live on the Internet (technical) and they all have ways in which they attract visitors and make sales (marketing).

Let’s look at the top ten ways in which you can annoy your website visitors and basically fail miserably at the whole website endeavor in each of the three segments. The following is a líst, broken up into the three categories, defining exactly what NOT to do.

Top 10 Web Design Mistakes:

1. Not using Web conventions, instead use crazy and wacky formats that no one’s ever seen and no one can understand.

2. Writing trite, predictable, boring or copied content only and not updating your site.

3. Creating totally different and unique navigation for every page so that your visitors need to waste time re-learning your navigation every time they go to a new page. Also creating totally different look & feels for every page so that your visitors don’t know if they’re on the same site or clicked away.

4. Using confusing, obfuscated and mysterious labels for all your links and buttons so that no one ever has any idea where they’re going if they click. The more confusing, the better.

5. Making it impossible to search the site. Offering no search box, no site map and basically no possible way to find anything on your website.

6. Including content that only talks about you. Not mentioning anything about your visitors or how you can help them, just talk about you and your history and all your achievements. Including a big picture of you and your office building right on the home page.

7. Including only poorly-written copy with lots of grammar mistakes, and ubiquitous, curious and horrendous spelling and punctuation mistakes throughout your site. 

8. Not including any text. Making every page on your site one big picture. So for instance, on your home page have one giant picture of you and your office building and have no text so search engines can’t see your site at all.

9. Using buttons for your navigation only, or use complicated JavaScript drop down menus that complicate your site’s navigation. Either way, if you do this and include no text links, the search engines won’t be able to spider (navigate and record) your website.

10. Making your site as difficult to read as possible. Use teeny, tiny fonts that are hard to read against some funky-colored background. For instance, use blue fonts on a black background.

Top 10 Technical Mistakes:

1. Making your website take forever to load in people’s browsers. The longer the better.

2. Making it so that your site looks completely different on everybody’s computer. So for Macs your site looks one way, and for PCs it looks another way. Or having it look totally different in Internet Explorer, Chrome and Firefox.

3. Making it so that any functionality on the site is confusing to figure out and works improperly and inconsistently every time it’s used.

4. Including lots of broken links and missing images throughout.

5. Setting it up so that it regularly crashes. For example, if more than three people are visiting the site at the same time, the home page becomes inaccessible.

6. Has no form validation. Allowing visitors to enter any thing under the sun into your website forms. Maybe some smart hacker-types will enter executable code that corrupts or takes over your server.

7. Making all your site visitors have to download and install lots of plug-ins to view your site properly. If they don’t, too bad.

8. Telling people that they have to view your site in a specific browser and browser version only.

9. Making it so that there are tons of pop-ups, moving newsletter sign-up boxes, running videos, animations and Flash movies that take forever to download before you can view the site.

10. Using lots of frames.

Top Ten E-Marketing Mistakes:

1. Making your website completely bounce-friendly. In other words, make it ‘un-sticky’ so that when people arrive on one of your pages, they leave immediately.

2. Including no calls to action so that your site doesn’t ever ask your website visitors to do a thing. Making it so that every page is a dead end that leaves your visitors scratching their heads and then clicking away.

3. Does absolutely nothing to build your brand.

4. Has no terms or policies page.

5. Evoke no emotions. Making your site flat, boring, gray, dull and forgettable.

6. Making sure there is no way for anyone who visits your site to sign up for anything or give you their contact info or email address. Certainly don’t use your site to build any kind of email líst.

7. Converting absolutely no one who visits your site into a paying customer. Ever.

8. Including no phone number, email and absolutely no other way to contact you. Hide behind your website.

9. Not using any kind of an analytics program like Google Analytics or Web Trends and not measuring or even looking at your website activity.

10. Making it so that search engine can’t read your site and make it so that people can’t really read your site either.

Follow these three lists perfectly and you’ll be well on your way to having a bad and useless website and frustrating and angering everyone who visits. 

About The Author

Jason OConnor owns and operates Oak Web Works, LLC, www.jasonoconnor.com and writes a periodic, free web design and marketing newsletter www.thenetgazette.net .

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Posted in Branding, Webcrowd News, Website Development | No Comments »

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