Seeing this number I decided to do a random sampling of four other clients accounts and they had 1.25%, 1.5%, 4.4%, 11% of their traffic from iPhone visitors. Some of these sites have a large of amount of visitors from iPhones.

What does this mean to you as a business owner with a website?

• If you are using Flash on your site, find a way to make it work without it. ‘Degrade’ your site gracefully so iPhone (and now iPad) users don’t experience a big blank spot or are unable to use or navigate.
• Another option is to create a mobile version of your site so it works well (and more quickly) on mobile devices.
• If you are in the middle of designing or building a website, look at your audience and decide how many of them are likely to use your site from an iPhone, iPad or similar device. If the number is significant – avoid using Flash or make sure you have an alternative – your users will thank you and the numbers of iPhone and iPad users are growing.

Note: Since this site primarily is targeted to a marketing audience, I’m intentionally not getting into the HTML5 versus Flash debate. If you want to do that, feel free to post a comment below or via a reply to me on twitter.

Lead! When was the last time you saw a statue of a committee?

Claiming your website is easy to use is like a restaurant claiming that their food is edible.

Cennydd Bowles

The first session was led by Cennydd Bowles of Clearleft, Ltd and was called simply Beauty in Web Design. This session was the first session of the first day of SXSW and included these wonderful quotes above. Cennydd’s point was that there are no works of art in web design, no truly revolutionary sites and as designers (visual or UX) we can all do a bit better.

Bowles talked through a bit of the history and psychology of good design. For instance, humans are always judging beauty innately, it’s not a learned behavior (it’s something you can watch a baby do) and the three types of beauty:

• Universal – everyone sees it
• Sociological (example of model’s now vs Milo’s Venus), changes with society preferences
• Subjective – personal opinions – beauty in the eye of the beholder

This session really emphasized how good UX design isn’t just making the site usable and Cennydd’s point was we should be pushing limits and trying to do something new. I agree completely with this sentiment and as you’ll see during the next post, I talk about one of the reasons why website design is becoming too consistent due to content management systems.

You’ve no doubt seen disclaimers in marketing efforts:

• not a real doctor

• past performance does not guarantee future results

• results not typical

Because social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth marketing make it especially difficult for consumers to identify paid endorsements, the new regulation requires that these relationships be made clear to the intended audience. If a company is providing free product or cash to someone to promote their product, the marketer must disclose it.

This is a good thing.

The FTC exists to (among other things) protect consumers and prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices. By holding ‘mommy bloggers’ to the same standards as traditional sources of advertising, the FTC hopes to make consumers less susceptible to unsubstantiated or false claims (looks like the acai berry diet’s days are numbered).

In full disclosure: as a writer I love to use purple, extra fine point Sharpie pens. The Sanford corporation does not pay me to say this…but if they’d like to, I’m available (Wait!?! Is that Mont Blanc on the other line…?).

We've made a few revisions to the Spoke Marketing site that we launched yesterday.  First, we switched the site to PHP which was fun for me since I'd never used it prior to last Thursday (yes – I know I'm a geek, but I always liked learning new languages).  That should make it easier to keep up to date.  Second, we add a new page for Spoke news and a page for our blog / twitter info. Third, we added some client quotes and a new client to our portfolio.  We'll keep the site fresh with new content as we launch new campaigns, websites and brands for our clients.

Spoke is featured in Small Business Monthly

Spoke is featured in the December issue of Small Business Monthly.  Jeremy Nulik sat all four Spoke partners down to ask us how to market in a down economy.  Humbly, I think we had some good insight in the article about marketing authenticity and finding a niche.  If you agree  / disagree with anything we said – please feel free to comment and let me know.  Honest dialogues are always fun.

From all of us at Spoke – Happy Holidays
Brian

If you are considering blogging because you’ve either been told or believe that it will help your search rankings, it will help personalize your business or drive traffic to your site.  I’m telling you that you don’t need a blog. 

Yes, if done effectively, blogging can improve your search rankings, generate traffic and help put a personal face on your business, but so can more effective web design and copywriting and yet most people are smart enough to outsource those two, but try and fail at blogging  (a point we will come back to later). 

Be Consistent or Be Dead

The web is littered with the broken remains of dead blogs.  Blogs that were started years ago when the craze first began. These sites launched with internal fanfare, a few well-thought out posts, some that may have even generated traffic or comments and ended up with a last post date of 2006 or 2007.  This looks far worse for the business that if the blog hadn’t been created at all.  With that in mind, here is a list of reasons of why you shouldn’t blog:

• You are not a writer
• You will struggle to find new content and therefore your blog will become stale
• People really don’t care what you have to say
• Your company or industry is boring
• You are afraid of writing anything controversial (for examples, see the previous two bullet points)
• You don’t understand “technology” and haven’t figured out to how to post from your typewriter (OK, it’s unlikely that you’re reading this if you are still using a typewriter, but you know what I mean)

“I want to do it anyway”

Good for you.  You have tenacity. I admire that. If you can do it without worrying about the bullet points above. Go for it – and send me the URL so I can track your success (or say I told you so in a year from now).

Here’s a tip if you think you can pull it off (and your company is big enough), use multiple authors, it will increase your number of posts and make it easier for each person to have post ideas.

“Hmm, I like the idea, but you have me concerned”

If you think you like the idea of a company blog and the items on the list above are a problem, consider another option – outsource it.  I’m sure there are several freelance writers out there who can create content for you at a reasonable price (and even do it in your voice). If you don’t know any writers, email me at brian at wearespoke dot com.  I’ll send you some names.

Another Option – Try Social Media First

If your goal is to make your company more personal – other options to consider are social media tools like facebook or twitter (micro-blogging). Like blogs they can make your company seem more personable and they can generate traffic to your site. If you can make the commitment and keep the statuses of those items up-to-date, start a blog. 

Don’t Put Lipstick on a Pig

If you have an ugly website, don’t drive traffic to it. It’s not going to help generate new business.  Focus your energy on a new website design instead, then focus on blogging. By the way, ugly doesn’t just mean the design – If your site is pointless (no clear call to action other than listing your information in a brochure like fashion) and you think it will generate business, you are mistaken. The first thing you need to consider when someone visits your site is what are they for.  If you are driving traffic to a site, have a reason – (e.g. Learn more about my time saving product, learn about how I can save your business in the failing economy here). 

Tell Me What You Think

If you think I'm right or wrong, let me know in the comments below.  If you have any questions or want to learn more about how to improve your blog, website or social media offerings feel free to email me at brian at wearespoke dot com.  Thanks for reading – Brian.