Strategies for Digital
Branding - 3rd class
Sofie Sandell
Twitter @Soffi_Propp
Instagram @sofiesandell
Brain and branding
How long time do you have to make a good
impression online?
Attention web designers: You have 50 milliseconds to
make a good first impression!
Study by: Gitte Lindgaard, Gary Fernandesa, Cathy Dudeka & J. Browna (2006)
Beauty is in the eye of the
beholder
The truth is that in business you don’t have the luxury of of hoping that some philanthropic soul will see
you for what you truly are.
You have:
• stakeholders to satisfy
• profits to deliver
You need to continually:
• attract new costumers to your website and online platforms
• keep them interested when they are there
• convert them into customers or “fans”
• retain them so they come back
You need to follow best practice to make sure you are heading in the right direction
Redesign and improve
The reality
• No budget
• Short delivery
• Never ideal to start a project…
• Failure is not an option
Will anyone give you
their money, email,
contact details?
Are you credible?
You can control
Text and information
Features
Design (sometimes)
Colours
But what if you have to live with a website from 2002?
They went from 5000 to 500 pages on their site.
Redesigned it in Beta with feedback from it’s users.
Some layout basics
• Point a path for the visitor
• Has to be intuitive
• Most important information easily visible
• Be in tune with the brand
• Complementary to the colours
• Enough information available on the home page and other pages
F
How it
looked
January
2014
New technology
In the past very few images
Today there are loads of opportunities and we often put into much
Think “Less is more” when designing
Never clutter your page - it will look messy
Make room for white space
Responsive websites
Elements that has to be
there - gives you cred!Home
About us
Products & Services
News / blog (if applicable)
Contact us - plus address - frustrating to not know where an org is based
Frequently Asked Questions
Terms & Condition
Sitemap
Homepage summary
Your website has to satisfy a global audience
Your website should complement and enhance a brand’s
values
Layout, colours, images and videos should be used
appropriately
The content and presentations must represent the organisation
well
This will damage your
online brand
❖ Long loading time
❖ Broken links
❖ Badly written copy
❖ Bad images
❖ Automatic playing videos / sound
❖ Bad navigation
❖ Video only website
❖ Poor colour contrasts
❖ Bad tagging - check New Your Times innovation report
Group work Write a website specification for a very bad website. No shiny brands please :)
Inspiration of some brand that need help:
Ling cars
industrialpainter.com
www.pennyjuice.com
www.007museum.com
www.leicatime.com
bammeltv.com
kasinoking.co.uk
Find your voice on twitter
~ Tweet like a pro ~
Copywriting rules (general)
• Break content up
• Use plain English and short words
• Short sentences: 8-18 words
• Short paragraphs: 1-3 sentences
• Headings and subheadings
• Use images and photos (resize first)
• Lists: 3-10 items
• Key words and phrases in Bold
• Use Italics sparingly
• Links (use in the text)
• AVOID ALL CAPS – THEY’RE ‘SHOUTY
What to tweet and
what to share?
…Some people with different styles to check out on Twitter…
\
How to start
Your name / brand name / campaign name
@name
Profile photo
Biography / information
Banner
Location
Different kind of tweets
Share a news piece written by someone else Complain about a brand and use hashtag Share a photo of a memorable moment Write a short poem Share your latest blog postShare a funny cartoonAsk a questionConnect with hashtag on an eventDo a ‘ask any question’ hour Share best practice tips Share art piecesWrite a diaryTake a picture of your food and share online Complain to a politicianStalk celebrities
More basics
You have to sound human
Try to be relevant - don’t share old news
Stay short - preferably less than the max 140 letters
Terminology
Tweet
Retweet
Reply
@name and share your thoughts
.@name and share your thoughts (visible to everyone)
# hasthags - the magic filter
Photos and images - big brand influencers
Twitter rules…
Most important rule:
- Never ever feed the trolls
Second most important rule:
- Will you insult someone - then don’t tweet
Thirds rule:
- Will they understand what I mean?
Timing
Timing rules on Twitter are different from the rest of
your experience of time.
You must be quick
Never reply too late - after just 20 min it can be too
late…
You must listen and tune into what people say
Twitter-cise
I talk and you tweet :)
ok?