Website designs come and go but as long as you are happy with yours, why would it make a difference? Well. there are some trends that impact on us all and here’s why…

Templates sites that all look the same

In the last couple of years there has been a big move towards websites that follow a similar style – big image across the top, minimal navigation and fewer words on the homepage. You’ll know what we mean. However, there is a good reason to follow suit – people know what they’re doing with these kinds of sites, they know where to look for the home page, the navigation, the contact details. It’s all very familiar. Yes, quite samey but familiar. People tend to be comfortable with familiarity although it sounds like a bad deal for the poor old designers.

Long scrolling

No one minds scrolling down to look for the best bits any more – we have become used to it with the increased use of smartphones and tablets. We don’t have to cram everything important in the first blink of an eye. Better for designers too!

It’s all about the images

We know that imagery has become one of our most vital communication tools. Video clips and photos are shown to be more effective than endless tomes and pages full of wordy descriptions. The trend towards using video and larger images is no accident, it capitalises on the research that shows that this is what people prefer. Again, this is as a result of improved graphics and filming capabilities on our mobile devices.

There’s much more trending right now – but it’s important (and easy) to see why things are as they are and how it affects your website. Re-consider it in the light of just these 3 things – a familiar look packed full of scrolling, images and video clips. We believe it’s here to stay.

It’s the one thing we know we should be paying just a little bit more attention to but don’t quite find the time, right? Here are 5 tips that will help cover your firm’s social media basics…

1 Make sure all your social media sites look consistent. They should tie in with your website and brand. The theme colours, logo and imagery should all be the same. This tells people they are in the right place. It strengthens your brand recall and it makes you appear as though you know what you are doing.

2 Pick the main social media platforms that suit your business. The obvious ones are LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook but do a little research – ask your clients what they use. You might like Facebook but it’s not always the most effective showcase for professional firms. As an admin you’ll see the reach of your platform. If it’s not working, don’t spend too much time on it, if any. You may be surprised to learn which are the most popular platforms – Twitter’s following is miniscule compared to Facebook. However if that’s where your clients are, it doesn’t matter. The quality of your contacts (and not quantity) is more important. Who needs 38,000 dead ends? It’s much better to have 300 strong, relevant contacts.

3 Recycle and re-purpose – Take an interesting article, use it whole on your website, break it down for Facebook and LinkedIn, take even smaller nuggets and soundbites for Twitter BUT include the link to the complete piece to drive people back to your website where they’ll get a much better, more informed outline of your business.

4 Don’t be lazy and use one of the online tools that recycles content for you. It is much better to do it yourself and position content for the platform you are working on. It is always obvious when the same piece of social media has been put through the automatic resizing process as the content just isn’t sharp enough. It really is worth spending just a few moments editing a lengthy paragraph and image from Facebook to a succinct, useful 140 characters for Twitter.

5 Schedule your heart out. It’s a fabulous way of making sure you have fresh content across all of your platforms throughout the week/fortnight/month ahead (depending on how much time you have). It also frees you up to forget about it for a while. In an ideal world you would be updating, refreshing and researching your social media every day. But we don’t live in that world do we?!

It’s a brand new year and the perfect time for brand assessment.  It’s really easy. Look at your business as though you are a customer. Oh, maybe not so easy then. So, why not ask 10 people – staff, customers, friends and family – to look at your ‘brand’ and ask for feedback.

Ask them:

·     What do they think of your logo, name and tagline (if you have one)?

·     At a glance, does your logo, name and tagline tell the world exactly what you do?

·     Is your logo, name and tagline memorable? If so, why?

·     When they look for your firm online, what do they find?

·     Does your firm appear high up on Google rankings?

·     What impression does your website give?

·     Do you use social media? Did your group of critics find your social media sites easily?

·     Does your firm write regular blogs? If so, what did the group make of them?

·     Overall, what impression did your group get from your online presence?

This is really basic but it’s a good place to start. You can commission proper studies for full research but you probably don’t need to go to that level of expense. Your group will tell you what you need to know, and in all likelihood, you already know.

We can do this with you (in a more detailed and structured way) – it’s what we do and we can come up with tried and tested ways to make your online presence work hard for you without it becoming hard work for you.

As part of your firm’s online presence we are strong believers in bringing things to life. There is no substitute for a quick visual insight into a business. Part of the communications challenge is to make people feel as though they know your business and would be comfortable working with you. These days of course, visual can mean a number of things – video, webinar, photos and short films amongst others.

We’re trialing video at the moment in a number of guises and are able to offer this service to our own clients.

Take a look at the following links and let us know what you think…

• https://youtu.be/u8BhFiOPRHg
• https://youtu.be/lCdZHhaO4nU
• http://doc-safe.co.uk/

How about improving your appearance on Twitter or LinkedIn with some animation as below