No doubt many of you have seen the little Google +1 button (shown to your right in loving enlargement) on websites and blogs you have visited. Some of you understand it and some of you may think it’s one more distraction.
Two words with regard to your website: Get One.
It’s an important part of your long term plan for web development and web design.
In an age of Internet marketing/viral marketing becoming marketing on steroids, Google put in their two cents…which is worth WAY more than two measly cents to your business. The Google +1 button sits there next to the Facebook “like” button, Digg button, StumbleUpon button and whatever other social media sharing buttons are on a web page. All of those buttons are very valuable in getting your website viewed by a much wider audience and building your following online. The Google +1 button might just be the most valuable of all, as it can affect where you appear in the search engine results of people who click on it.
The way it works is when a visitor has a Google account and clicks on the +1, it will give them a little message that says “You publicly +1′d this as (their name here).” From that point forward, whenever they do a search for your kind of business you will rank higher in their search because they publicly +1′d your site. Basically, Google takes the fact that they gave your site (or a page on your site) a “thumbs up” in the Google platform and factors that into the algorithm of their personal search.
More and more, this kind of “personalized” searching is becoming the norm. It only figures that Google will work their own offerings (i.e. Google Places, Google Plus) into the algorithms and reward those of us who are smart enough to use them. Google is by far the largest search engine with 75% – 80% market share. Don’t take that lightly.
Get the button, and if you don’t know how your web development and web design team should be able to easily take care of it for you:)
Do any of you remember the 1987 comedy film Ishtar? Most of you probably don’t, but many of you are probably rolling your eyes because it is notorious for being one of the absolute biggest box office flops in movie history.
$55 million dollar budget.
$14 million dollar take at the box office.
You do the math.
So what in the world does a movie from before the Internet age have to do with your web development and web design? Well, our friend Mark Boyd – aka Marqeteer – is just strange enough to track down a movie like this and draw an analogy. While reading this analogy, remind yourself of how quickly viral marketing spreads online – especially if the news is negative – and you will see the correlation.
Ishtar was pretty much doomed as soon as it hit theaters. It ranked #1 its first weekend with a fairly modest take and fell rather quickly due to a merciless barrage of negative reviews, all fueled by negative commentary about the ridiculous budget, infighting, actor/director clashes and other things that had nothing to do with watching the movie itself. The negative word spread and colored people’s perception of the movie without them even seeing it.
If you were to ask someone today if they were familiar with Ishtar, there will be those who say yes. Of the people who say “yes” only a small portion of them have actually seen the movie. Most of those who haven’t seen it will undoubtedly be familiar with the negativity surrounding Ishtar…and maybe even offer an opinion, however uneducated. However uneducated those opinions were, they led to the movie being so badly reviewed that it’s not even available on DVD here in the US.
Which means people will give opinions even though they have no first hand knowledge about something. How you present yourself online and communicate through your website speaks to people either positively or negatively. Whatever reaction you get from people will be spread quickly through their circles of friends. These people are then likely to offer opinions to others…sometimes without having visited your site themselves (i.e. Ishtar).
Obviously, you can’t please all of the people all of the time…but you CAN put thought into your content, your pictures and your overall presentation that will be inviting to people and create more positive buzz.
Don’t make your website too nice or milquetoast…let your personality, humour, creativity and opinions shine. It humanizes you to visitors and leaves either a positive or negative opinion with them. This opinion will be spread by both those who know and don’t know. Heck, look at the layout of the MIND website. Think we like rock n roll and retro pictures? Hell yeah! That’s us. We love it and, fortunately, people love us for it.
What do you love? Remember, people will love you for it.
As long as it’s not Hot Fudge Love…
As people move towards a more web-based life you find that many tips and ideas are still spread by the most common way; word of mouth. Only this time “word of mouth” is actually something that is posted or shared on a social network and not at the water cooler. As a Web Development Company that handles Web Design in Lancaster we often browse message boards like ones found on LinkedIn and Facebook. What we read sometime, however, is a little scary and somewhat demonstrates how word of mouth can sometimes be a detriment rather than a benefit.
Many companies tout their experience on their sites. “We’ve been designing websites since 19 something and something”… “1,000 years of experience from immortal website designers”! All kinds of grand claims… heck, even we do it! There is nothing wrong with that, however, there is something to be said about staying current. Sure, you’re company has been around for years — does your website show that? How many sites have you been to that say, “Designing Websites for 15 Years” and their site LOOKS 15 years old? How many times do you click on a portfolio link and see the same basic design elements repeated over and over? What about the site that takes for god-awfully-long to load and then it’s just a big picture with a couple links? This is the problem with being an old web designer.
How does one avoid this problem? Answer: you must stay current!
Web design and web development are two ares where technology constantly changes the landscape. Specifically for development; newer updated codes and scripts allow you to do more with less strain on browsers. Are you one of those people who “needs Flash” on their website? Did you know you can do the same effects with just a script? You’d also save space making the site load faster AND it could potentially still be searchable where Flash is not. In order to keep going in this business you need to know what people want and how to best deliver it to them. With new scripts and programs coming out everyday it’s important to keep up — and keep on it! Web design typically follows trends but one trend that will never cease is clean design. A few years ago grungy graphics and websites were cool. A few years before that flash and shockwave were the rage. Before that there were animated GIFs and scrolling text… They all have their place in time however these trends are well passed their prime and probably should be put away with other childish things 
In short, you can tout your web presence and your experience all you want. However, if your website is out-dated, old, or just doesn’t work right — how does that make you as a company look? How current is your web team?
In case you haven’t heard, Google has recently launched Google+, their social networking site that is trying to succeed where previous efforts have failed.
You remember…Google Buzz and Google Wave?
Yyyyyeah, they didn’t work out so well for Google. Truth is, Facebook has really become to social networks what Google is to search engines, which is a hard thing for even Google to compete with. To you and most business people trying to make the best use of their web development and web design efforts, the main question is what features does Google+ have that Facebook doesn’t?
More importantly, do those features really matter to you and your business enough for you to add yet another social media forum to your network?
Here are some of the new features that are getting some buzz:
Hangouts: Probably the biggest element Google+ has that Facebook doesn’t is a feature called “Hangouts” that gives users a way to join group video chats. It’s basically a chat room with video. Any user can create a Hangout and others can then join. As well as video chatting, users can also watch YouTube videos as a group.
Sparks: Sparks is the Google+ newsfeed, and it’s different from the Facebook news feed in that it’s focused on specific topics and on news: you won’t find information on where your friend was today or what they had for dinner, but you will find highlights from blogs, newspapers, and other media outlets sorted by topic.
What Strangers Are Saying: Whereas on Facebook the only posts and status updates that appear in your news feed come from people you’re friends with, Google+ lets you see posts and updates from people you aren’t yet following, but who are following you. You can follow them if you choose by putting them into one of your “circles”.
Chat with Strangers: Facebook Chat requires you to be friends with someone before you can chat with them. Google Hangouts, for better or for worse, are much more open: up to ten people can join a Hangout video chat, and they need not be in each others’ Circles to do so. Maybe nothing negative will come of this, but you’ve got to admit Google is taking a risk with a really loaded Pandora’s Box here.
So what’s the bottom line?
Bottom line is that yes…there is another social media forum to be considered for your Internet marketing and web development/web design efforts. Is it absolutely necessary? Functionally speaking, probably not, but the initial word is that you will do well to have a presence on Google Plus and the Google+ box (the equivalent of the Facebook “like” box) on your website will help you greatly in the search engines.
It’s amazing, isn’t it? There are practically no boundaries for visual expression in web development and web design online. Virtually any idea can be illustrated in painful detail with today’s computer graphics programs and the experts who use them.
Hollywood movies now contain more computer animation sequences than ever, and impossible scenarios can be brought to light. In our “bigger, better, faster, more” society, good ideas are beaten to death and capabilities such as the computer graphics are taken to sometimes ludicrous extremes.
And then it reaches a point of overkill wherein it’s not so special anymore. Wherein the point becomes so overstated that to stand out you could simply dress your business up like the old black-and-white “generic” products of the 1980′s.
Sometimes simple is simply better and more effective. And more memorable. Look at Apple’s logo. Or State Farm’s. Simple and memorable.
The picture above is a brilliant example of a simple idea that is simply allowed to breathe. And when you think about it, the idea is simple…the most powerful ideas usually are.
The mind is a powerful device. How are you using your mind when it comes to your website? Are you merely sticking with the tried (tired) and true? Or…are you using your imagination to really communicate with your clients and potential clients? The right web development and web design team can make these ideas shine.
Click on the image above to see the full-size picture and really see what’s going on. Ingenious 
