The poloDesign Blog

How “likable” is your business on Facebook?

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Eric

The #1 social media challenge? How to get more people to "like" your business on Facebook. (*photo: 123rf.com)

No doubt about it, being liked is important to many people. One of the questions we’re most frequently asked is “how do I get people to like my page?”

It’s no wonder all this social media marketing stuff sometimes seems more like an obssessive popularity contest than a communications strategy. There is, however, a great deal of value to being “liked” on Facebook, followed on Twitter, connected on LinkedIn, or circled on Google+. You might not be using all of those channels, and that’s okay; they each have their own advantages and unique audiences. Most small business owners start promoting their businesses through social media by setting up a Facebook business page. Whichever channel(s) you choose, the important thing is to develop positive relationships with the people who are most interested in your product or service.

Put People First

Always remember that whether you’re talking about life, business or social media, relationships are the key. In most cases, people prefer to do business with people, companies or brands that thrive on excellence, are knowledgable, ethical, fair, trustworthy and fun. If that is who you are and who your customers see you as being then you have an great chance of being “liked” on Facebook.

Are Numbers Really Important?

The number of likes you have is not simply an indication of popularity. One of the ongoing debates between online marketers and social media watchers is about the importance of the number of “likes” or followers a business has. Some argue that tracking and placing a heavy emphasis on such numbers is necessary to demonstrate return on investment. How else can you justify the time and/or expense involved in using social media to promote your business without a number to measure your progress?

The other side of the debate suggests that the quantity of followers isn’t as important as the quality. Better to have 500 actively engaged followers who like, comment, and share your posts than 5,000 who have no interaction with you.

It’s true that measuring ROI in business is important, and the number of followers can be read as an indicator of whether or not your social media efforts are delivering value. When people “like” your page they have the opportunity of seeing your posts in their newsfeed. Having a large number of people “like” your page means you are reaching more potential clients to develop relationships with. So, having a big number of followers is what really matters, right? Not necessarily.

Get Engaged

On Facebook, having an engaged fanbase also drives value, and ultimately, is one of the more important factors in reaching more clients. Facebook has its own algorithm or formula for determining what items you see in your newsfeed. Like Facebook, this is constantly evolving, but the amount of engagement (likes, comments, shares) a post receives is one of several factors weighting the visibility and lifetime of a post. And you will want your posts to be seen by as many people for as long and as often as possible, yes?

Engagement is also the way in which you develop those relationships. How much of a relationship do you have if people won’t respond to you? Could you describe it as being a good one? If people aren’t engaging with you it’s difficult for those relationships to blossom.

Be More Likable

What will make your page likable is if you are sharing posts to which others respond. Why should someone like your page if you never post anything? Or if your posts aren’t offering useful or entertaining content in a personal way?

People use social media to connect with family and friends, share interests or to be entertained. This means that you have to offer something of value for people to allow you into their social space. So before you ask for more people to like your business page, make sure you’re giving them a good reason to do so. If you are, you’ll be more likable and people will click that button.

For more on social media or other business communications help, be sure to click our “like”.

*Photo Credit: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Posted in Small Business, Social Media | Tagged facebook, google, linkedin, small business, social media, social media for business, twitter | Leave a comment

Six ways to improve your online marketing in 2012

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Eric

Wishing everyone a prosperous New Year!(photo: 123RF.com*)

Welcome to 2012 and a New Year of grand possibilities. Hopefully, you’ve worked your way through the leftovers of all that holiday feasting and have finally packed the decorations away.

Somewhere between fad-diet planning, re-newed fitness regime commitments, and staunch vows to break bad habits, you may have given some thought to ways of managing your business better in the coming year. Have you also stopped to consider your online business? Here are six questions you might ask to help improve your online marketing effectiveness in 2012.

Are your online info and offerings up to date? Update your contact info if it has changed. Make certain you’re promoting any new services or products that you offer on your website or social media channels. And check to see that you’re promoting your web address through your social media channels and vice versa. Make the most of all your opportunities by updating and maintaining your online content.
Is your website compatible with mobile devices (tablets and smart phones)? Many mobile devices don’t support Flash; it may be time to dump older technologies in favour of newer methods for delivering animated content. There are also methods of optimizing sites so your content is easily readable on the variety of screen sizes people use now. Consider adding flexibility and adaptability to your website’s appearance and performance.
Does your website show up near the top of search engine results? Search engine optimization (SEO) is still relevant in an online world increasingly dominated by social media. Many search engines serve blog entries as content in search results and rank websites higher if traffic is being directed to them via social media. Get found online and stay ahead of your competitors.
Have you forgotten about email? Although social media gets most of the attention today, people still have and use their email accounts and email marketing is still a highly effective tool for communicating with your clients. You can embed links to relevant content on your website which will help your customers while also increasing your SEO rankings. A good email service can offer you attractive templates, statistical reporting and the benefits of white-listed servers so that your newsletters don’t get flagged as spam. Now may be a good time to develop an email marketing strategy for the coming year.
Do you have an established method for collecting email addresses and other contact info? Social media is great for building your networks, but it’s still rented space. If a contact stops following you or drops you from their network, you’ve lost them as a contact if you haven’t collected their info in some other form. Your client list is one of the most important marketing tools you have; make sure yours is up-to-date. Remember, it’s easier and less expensive to keep existing customers than to find and convert new ones.
Do you own all the web domains that are relevant to your business? Quite often people will purchase only a single domain such as mybigbusiness.ca when, for a few extra dollars, they could also secure other domains such as mybigbusiness.com, mybigbusiness.net, etc. By doing this, you can ensure that potential clients will find you no matter what address they type into their browsers. Make it easier for people to find you.

All of this may seem like a lot of work, which is all the more reason for you to look at it now so you can plan when and how you’ll accomplish it throughout the year. Remember, its okay to ask for help with optimizing your online content. You may have spoken to a nutritionist in planning your new diet, a fitness instructor to help you with training and a life-coach for breaking bad habits. Why not contact web professionals for assistance with your online marketing? We’d love to help you, so drop us a line at email hidden; JavaScript is required.

*Photo Credit: Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Posted in Goal-setting | Tagged email marketing, mobile optimization, online content, search engine optimization, SEO, social media, web domains | Leave a comment

Your local Chamber of Commerce: Social networking in real time

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Eric

In our race to master online Social Media Networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google+, we often forget another channel for business networking: your local Chamber of Commerce. For small business owners, local chambers of commerce provide opportunities to connect with other business people from your community. Most chambers of commerce, like the two we belong to in Eastern Ontario (Quinte West and Brighton), host monthly after-hours events and breakfast meetings where you can meet and socialize with other chamber members. These other owner/operators are not only your peers, but also potential customers and brand advocates who might direct some of their clients to you once they’ve learned more about the products or services you provide.

Your local Chamber of Commerce is a great place to network with other business people. - photo Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

Direct Marketing
In addition to offering personal networking opportunities at chamber events, most chambers of commerce provide other vehicles to market and promote your business to their members and the local community. These might include a business listing in a printed directory as well as an online listing on your chamber’s website. Many chambers of commerce also send emails, newsletters and bulletins to members where you can either place an ad or have your business card or brochure inserted for a fee. The overall cost for inserting your materials in a chamber mailer is usually far less than the price of mailing the same piece to as many people yourself. As a lead generation tool, this form of marketing offers excellent value. In our own case, we were contacted within one day and gained new business as a result of advertising through inserting our brochure in our local chamber of commerce’s mailing.

Membership has its rewards
Your membership in a local chamber of commerce offers other advantages such as group insurance rates, debit and credit merchant discounts and member to member discounts. Your chamber membership might also include membership in a regional, povincial/state and national chamber of commerce. This offers the benefit of a united voice advocating on your behalf with all levels of government for better policies towards business.

In our area, several chambers (Brighton, Quinte West, Belleville and Prince Edward County) join together to support activities during Small Business Week. This year, these included business seminars, one of which poloDesign delivered on Social Media for Business. This multi-chamber partnership provided us opportunities to network with businesses outside our local community. The culmination of this week-long cooperative effort among the four chambers of commerce was the annual Quinte Business Achievement Awards Gala. We have been to this event before as nominees and have also attended it to support clients and peers as well as for the networking opportunity such a social occasion provides.

Reach a wider audience
The value of belonging to a chamber of commerce isn’t just in being able to connect with the business community, but also the ability to reach the larger, local community as well. Quite often, your chamber of commerce is the source of information that people (especially newcomers) might access to learn more about local businesses. Even as a non-profit organization, your chamber of commerce should have one or two paid staff members who are capable of answering questions and referring potential customers to your business. Many chambers also host or participate in organizing home or trade shows, golf tournaments and community events such as Santa Claus parades or fundraising activities which provide advertising and sponsorship opportunities for their members to promote themselves further.

Giving Back
Of course, producing community events requires the efforts of a great many people. Volunteer opportunities exist for you to contribute your skills, knowledge and expertise to your chamber and community. Volunteering is not only a great way to gain exposure and goodwill but also a means of showing appreciation for your community by helping to enrich the lives of those around you.

As with any networking channel, whether online or off, you get what you put into it. It’s easy to join a chamber of commerce or create an online Social Media profile, but if you don’t participate you won’t get much more than minimal exposure. Put yourself out there and connect, that’s what networking is about. Just remember to have fun and enjoy yourself too, that’s the social part of networking and it’s just as important.

Posted in Community, Small Business, Social Media | Tagged brighton, facebook, linkedin, networking, quinte, small business, social media, social media for business, Trenton, twitter | Leave a comment

Get out much? Try Foursquare check-ins for more fun!

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Eric

I can sympathize with some of the local incumbent candidates who were ousted in the recent provincial election. You see, I too, have been recently deposed, but not by way of election. These little coups have been taking place all over Northumberland and Hastings counties whenever someone else hits the “Check In Here” button on the Foursquare app on their smartphones.

Two weeks ago I lost my positions as Mayor of both Pharma Plus and Lower Trent Conservation. A week ago I was un-seated as the Mayor of West City Honda. And within the last 48 hours, while local provincial Liberals were losing their seats I was unceremoniously dumped from The Grind Coffee Cafe, Wooler Convenience and Vito’s Pizzeria. Getting all those email notifications and watching my reign come to an end was a tough blow to take. But don’t feel too badly for me, I still have my twelve other Mayorships.

For those of you who haven’t already been playing along, Foursquare is a geo-location, mobile social media platform. To play, you need a smartphone with GPS, the Foursquare app and a Foursquare account, both of which are free. Every time you visit a store, restaurant, nightspot, museum, art gallery or other public space, you find its listing on your Foursquare app and “check in”. Check in to a particular venue more frequently than anyone else and you can be the Mayor!

Some of the Foursquare badges I've managed to collect: Bookworm, Overshare and Super Mayor to name a few.

The app lets you upload photos and post messages to your other social media profiles like Facebook and Twitter so you can show your friends where you are and invite them to join you. You also get to collect points and badges for various check-ins and can compete against your friends for bragging rights.

Why would anyone play such a “game”, isn’t it just another silly time-waster? Well, apart from being fun in a competitive way, Foursquare can also be a useful tool. If you’re visiting someplace new and are looking for somewhere to have a meal, or a place to buy sunscreen or aspirin, you could look for restaurants or pharmacies on Foursquare to see what’s around you. Then you could get directions based on your GPS location and find your way easily. Users can also leave tips in the form of suggestions or reviews. If five people raved about the incredibly satisfying sweet potato poutine at a restaurant you were sitting in, wouldn’t you feel more inclined to try it?

If you’re a business owner, you want to do everything you could to ensure new customers come through the door. Listing your business on Foursquare can help in generating traffic. Foursquare also allows businesses to make special offers in the form of rewards to Mayors or other users when they check in. I’ve received free wine-tastings at Prince Edward County wineries I’ve visited just for checking in. What a great way to generate customer loyalty!

Although it is growing, Foursquare is still relatively small with only 14 million users. It started out as more of an urban, big city kind of phenomenom having huge popularity in cities like New York, Chicago and Toronto. Here, in Eastern Ontario, it’s only now beginning to gain traction. In the early days (last year) it was easy for me to rack up a ton of Mayorships simply because there weren’t as many players. Now, of course I’m getting a little more competition, which makes it more fun.

If you haven’t tried Foursquare, you might want to check it out by checking in. If you’re a business person and want to learn more about using Foursquare to attract more customers, then please get in touch with us at email hidden; JavaScript is required. We’d love to help you.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged foursquare, geo-location, northumberland, ontario, social media | Leave a comment

Hey! We’re excited about Back to School!

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Eric

What a great time of year! This week marks the return to school for children, teens, young adults and a growing number of mature students. You could say that we, at poloDesign, are going back to school this fall too. Those of you in business know that personal and professional development is an ongoing necessity. Our return to school won’t be as students, however, but as guest speakers and instructors.

We ran a number of social media workshops over the past winter and spring. This included the launch of our Brighton Social program, a series of free, weekly networking/learning events which has been on hiatus since June. Although we did miss it a bit, we mostly enjoyed a quiet summer without those presentation day deadlines to meet and adrenaline-surging moments prior to speaking in front of an audience. All of that changes now that September is here and we find ourselves launching into even more social media speaking events.

Brighton Social returns later this month with a new program featuring guest speakers and a new venue where creatives and business people can mingle, share, learn and collaborate in promoting their community, themselves and those around them. These events will run from late September until mid-December. If you want to know more, be sure to sign up for the Brighton Social email newsletter and follow Brighton Social on Facebook. We’re also hoping to launch a similar venture based out of Belleville and we look forward to finalizing that with a formal announcement very soon.

On October 6th we’ll be attending Quinte’s Small Business and Job Fair in Belleville to give a presentation called Selling Yourself: Building Relationships Through Social Media. We’ll be back in action for the Northumberland Business Advisory Centre on October 24th, this time in Colborne, presenting an introduction to social media for small businesses.

If all of that isn’t enough, Penny Olorenshaw will present a talk on Social Media for Business to the Northumberland Women’s Business Network on November 16th, and in December our own Eric Davidson will be teaching a four-week program on Building Business with Facebook at Fleming College in Cobourg.

Whew! What a busy fall we have ahead of us. Of course, delivering these presentations and programs is only the tip of the iceberg. Planning, researching, writing, creating slideshows and rehearsing is also a big part of what gets us ready to stand in front of a group of people to say something that’s helpful and easily understood.

We’ll keep you posted on what’s happening as we get closer to individual events. Perhaps you’ll come out to one? For those of you who can’t attend our events, we’ll share snippets of what we’re teaching as well as some of our favourite examples of social media done well via our Facebook page and our own email newsletter. We look forward to meeting lots of new people and seeing some of you long-time followers as well.

If you can’t wait for one of our presentations or courses to get started with using social media, please get in touch with us at email hidden; JavaScript is required. We’re always happy to offer one-on-one assistance to those who are interested.

Posted in Seminars, Social Media | Tagged facebook, northumberland, presentation, seminar, social media for business, using social media | Leave a comment

Recipes for building better Content Management websites

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Penny

I’ve been using CMS Made Simple for the past four years, starting from a basic knowledge of HTML and CSS but no PHP experience. I chose it initially because of its simple user interface that would make it easy for my clients to update their websites. Installing and setting up a basic site was relatively simple and as time went on, I learned how to incorporate and use third-party modules and make basic customizations to module templates. I could tell that there was nearly endless potential to expand the system but I lacked the know-how. I have worked with both Joomla! and WordPress and keep returning to CMS Made Simple because it just makes sense as a way to build a website.

This year, I took on some sites that forced me to delve further into this well-coded CMS and spent a lot of time digging through Sofia Haufschildt’s CMS Made Simple Beginners Guide, the CMSMS forum and various sources of documentation. My knowledge increased quickly but I still felt that I was only scratching the surface. And then Samuel Goldstein’s CMS Made Simple Development Cookbook was published by Packt. Although I was initially afraid the book might be too advanced, I was pleased to discover how quickly concepts I’d been struggling with began to make sense. After working through several of the ‘recipes’, I had a much better understanding of how to use Smarty code and the core modules.

Learn how to get the most out of CMS Made Simple

Samuel is the author of Formbuilder, one of the most useful and flexible third-party modules available for CMS Made Simple and a favorite of mine. His book is as well-written as his code, clearly explaining the differences between tags, user-defined tags and modules and the best uses for each. Within just a few pages, the reader learns how to calculate math with the Smarty templating engine, create colour sets in stylesheets and use if-else conditions to hide content areas within templates. The book progresses through more complicated tasks, building on the foundation laid in the earlier recipes.

Each recipe begins with ‘Getting Ready’, explaining the necessary permissions and access requirements to accomplish the task. At first, these sections may appear repetitive but, like any good cookbook, they allow a reader to choose any recipe and begin without needing to look back to find the basics. After showing how to accomplish the task with clear code examples, the author then provides a detailed explanation of how the recipe works and the elements of Smarty that are utilized. In this way, the reader understands the ‘why and how’ of developing with CMS Made Simple and Smarty code and can apply that knowledge to solving other challenges. He wraps up with further ways to develop the recipe and cross-references to related recipes elsewhere in the book.

Samuel’s writing style is friendly and clear without unnecessary jargon. He is able to turn dry programming language into useful real-world examples. Of all the books on coding I’ve ever read, this is by far the best at helping a novice develop a strong knowledge base and instilling a sense of confidence. The CMS Made Simple Development Cookbook will help further the adoption of CMS Made Simple as a CMS of choice, allowing experienced website builders to create complex sites that remain simple for end users.

To see a few of our recent CMSMS sites, visit Arts Quinte West, Brighton & District Chamber of Commerce, Keeping Main Street Open or Accountek Solutions.

Posted in CMS Made Simple, Web design, Web Development | Tagged cms made simple, content management, database, packt, recipes, samuel goldstein, smarty | 2 Comments

Picture This!

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Eric

Let’s say you’ve been given the responsibility of promoting your business, event, product, or even the place you live. After a lot of time and discussion, decisions have been made about the audience you want to reach, what message you want to present, the medium(s) you’re going to use and the style and tone you’d like to adopt.

You set to work writing what you want to say. You craft a brief, carefully worded message that hits all the key points and ends with a strong urge to action. You get one of your designer friends to take your words and create a layout that’s visually appealing, well-organized and flows nicely. As you look at your ad or promotional material you can’t help thinking that something is missing. If only you could picture what it was… And then it hits you. There are no pictures!

This images provides viewers with an excellent example of what a "Light Magicals" performance looks like on stage.

Pictures can do so much to improve the effectiveness of your promotional efforts. A picture can reinforce your message by presenting clear examples of what you’re referring to. Pictures can also set tone and communicate style while maintaining branding and visual identity. Most importantly, pictures can help draw more attention to, and develop interest in, what you’re saying. Simply put, people respond more strongly to images than they do to words alone.

The show was re-branded for 2011 and images were used to position it as a lifestyle event that featured more of Brighton's unique community.

This was the poster from the Brighton Chamber of Commerce 2010 trade show event. Visually, this isn't as eye-catching or strong as it could be.

When you’re choosing photographs look for strong images that are free of clutter. Be bold, think of unique ways of cropping (framing) a shot so that the focal point supports what your copy is saying. Where it’s appropriate, try to find images that tell a story.

Professionally-taken photographs are well-composed and suitable for use in high-quality printing.

Remember that, even though digital photography is cheap and easily available, you should consider using professionally created images whenever possible. In many cases a picture snapped with a cellphone or point-and-shoot camera will not be of high enough quality (both in composition and resolution) for printing. A professional photographer has better equipment and knows how to create compelling images that show you to your best advantage.

If you’re having an event, be sure to have someone take LOTS of pictures. If you can, hire a pro whose only focus will be on capturing images from your event. These are great for use in social media, and also to help you build a library of usable images for future promotions. If there are people in your photographs be sure to get their permission to use their likeness by having them sign a model’s release.

The next time you prepare an ad, flyer, brochure or website, remember that pictures are a universal means of expression and communication. Through pictures, you can instruct, inform, convince, entertain and evoke strong emotions as well as develop and reinforce your own branding. It may cost a little more over a strictly text-based form of communication, but the returns will more than justify the expenditure.

If you would like help in creating more effective promotional materials using strong imagery, get in touch with us at email hidden; JavaScript is required. We’d love to help.

Posted in Graphics | Tagged graphics, images, photographs, pictures, social media, social media for business, web design, website | Leave a comment

A few things about Facebook Privacy

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Eric

One of the items about Facebook which came up in our most recent Brighton Social event concerns account privacy. Many people are understandably concerned about how much of their personal information Facebook shares with others.

Facebook is continually evolving as a social media platform. Its rapid growth and adoption worldwide has required a certain amount of tinkering for it to be able to provide the services users want. Some of those changes have included making it easier and more attractive for advertisers and third party providers to have access to and profit from Facebook’s millions of users. This means sharing some of your information. Sorry folks, but it costs a lot of money to provide a free service which stores millions of photos, video clips, and remembers who’s friends are who so that you can see, “like” and comment on their thoughts instantly on your newsfeed.

The Facebook Privacy Settings Menu is accessed from the "Account" tab.

Don’t despair though, you can control how much of your personal info does get shared. In Facebook, if you go to “Accounts>Privacy Settings” you will see the various privacy options available. You can choose whether to have your info and what you share visible to “everyone”, “friends of friends”, “friends only”, or “customize”. By choosing “customize”, you can refine your settings to even greater detail such as “specific people” or “only me” so that items such as your mobile phone might be visible only to yourself.

You can also create “block lists” where you may block people or apps you don’t want to see or hear from.

Your info can be shared through friends who play games or use apps unless you change your settings.

You probably weren’t aware that your info can be shared to games and apps. Click on the “edit settings” link under Apps and websites and you can control your info settings including “Information accessible through your friends”. That’s right, you may not be playing games like Farmville or Petville, but if your friends are, your info can be passed on unless you change your settings.

As to websites, you can switch off “Enable Public Search” if you don’t want to be found on search engines such as Google. Wondering how cloaked you are with your privacy settings? Click on the “see preview” link in the “public search” menu to see your profile as others who aren’t connected to you might see it.

Of course, as with anything you do online, you should be aware of the need to exercise a little personal caution in what you say or share. It is after all the WORLD WIDE web and, despite all safeguards, anything you say out there has the potential to “go viral”.

Posted in Social Media | Tagged facebook, social media | Leave a comment

Starting a small town social media network

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Eric

This past Monday saw the well-attended launch of the first Brighton Social event. What is Brighton Social? A fun, regular meet-up where “Socialites” can talk, listen, share and learn more about using social media and other promotional tools. Our first event attracted over twenty interested people looking to increase their network of contacts and to learn new, possibly better, ways of promoting their business, organization or artistic endeavours.

In the past year poloDesign has been actively involved in teaching and preaching the value of social media tools for use in marketing and promoting small businesses in the Brighton and Quinte West area. We’ve delivered seminars and workshops through the Business Advisory Centre Northumberland and Fleming College in Cobourg about using Facebook for business. In addition to that, we’ve done one on one social media coaching and consulting with small business owners and helped them launch their own Facebook business pages.

For some time we’ve admired the focused and creative community initiatives (Creative Minds and Social Media Brown Bag) developed by our neighbours in Prince Edward County. They have done an excellent job of positioning themselves as a Creative Rural Economy attracting investment and entrepreneurs. One of the keys (we believe) to the success of those in the County has been their quick adoption and use of social media tools. For many of the new businesses and artists in the County, Facebook, Twitter and blogging play a major role as marketing and communications tools and have helped them extend their reach into markets beyond their own.

There's still a place for traditional promotional methods too, such as these postcards which we distributed in downtown Brighton.

With such a good example to guide us, poloDesign has partnered with others in our own community to create Brighton Social. Our hope is that it will serve as a useful knowledge-sharing forum and a supportive environment for those around us to collaborate and encourage each other toward greater successes. Brighton Social is a grassroots resource for those who want to dream a little bit bigger and to have fun doing it. The enthusiasm and desire present in the room for our first event were an encouraging sign.

We’d like to thank Steve and Tracey of End of the Thread Café for working with us to provide a comfortable, low-cost space to host the event. And a special thank-you goes to Ed Denning, for his support and assistance in the early stages of planning and promoting Brighton Social.

We look forward to watching Brighton Social grow and flourish in the weeks and months to come. We invite those in the community whom we haven’t reached yet to check us out and become “Socialites” as well. Our next event is Monday, May 16 at 5:00 pm above End of the Thread Café. Be sure to visit and “like” the Brighton Social Facebook page to stay informed.

Posted in Community, Seminars, Social Media | Tagged blogging, brighton, community, creative rural economy, facebook, northumberland, quinte, social media, social media for business, social media tools, twitter, using social media | Leave a comment

Is your logo “game-ready”?

Posted on March 18, 2011 by Eric

Business people who appreciate sports metaphors will probably agree with me when I say that having a good logo is the equivalent to always having your “game face” on. Your logo is probably one of the hardest working assets your business owns. In many cases your logo precedes you, offering potential clients a first point of contact for your business. When a memorable logo is used effectively, a strong recognition factor is developed to ensure your clients think of your product or service before that of your competitors.

With all that your logo can do for you, it is surprising to us that not as many people appreciate the amount of work that can and should go into the creation of an effective logo or word mark. Sadly, many people who are starting their businesses view the creation of logos and promotional materials as an expense rather than an investment. They give little consideration to what they may actually need and hire a graphic designer strictly on the basis of what it will cost.

Rather than go into a lengthy defense of graphic designers and the fees we charge, I thought I would share some recent logos we’ve done at poloDesign with a brief description of the process involved in creating a logo.

Our logo for the summer shuttle bus service connecting Presqu'ile Provincial Park and downtown Brighton.

First up is the debut of our most recent logo creation: The Brighton Bus. This is a seasonal summer shuttle service which connects Presqu’ile Provincial Park with downtown Brighton. The service has only been running a few years and each season the operators (Municipality of Brighton, Downtown Business Improvement Association, and Brighton and District Chamber of Commerce) have improved their level of service. For the coming season they wanted to develop a promotional campaign and felt they needed to create some brand identity materials beginning with a logo.

When designing a logo, a great deal of sketching happens before turning to the computer.

After initial discussions we agreed that the logo needed to be bright, colourful, lively and fun. We’re promoting a shuttle service for vacationers, not a commuter service for stressed out business people. After researching logos for other bus services, I began to work at developing three concepts to present to the review committee. The one chosen required only a few tweaks and was enthusiastically received.

It usually helps to explore a lot of different ideas.

The logo’s main colours, blue and green, complement each other, give a sense of the eco-friendliness of public transit and connect to summer at Presqu’ile Provincial Park. Green grass, blue skies and blue water, ah… summer. The red apple makes the connection to Brighton which plays host to the Apple Route throughout the year as well as Applefest in the fall. The lettering was chosen to reflect the fun aspect of being on a bus which offers a guided tour of Brighton. It came from a specific display font which was adapted slightly based on suggestions by the review committee.

The bus was something I developed through a series of sketches. I wanted to inject a lot of character into it and chose to personify it in a cartoon style. I was pleased to see members of the review committee begin to refer to it as “the happy bus” almost immediately without my prompting. I especially appreciated this since I’d used that name in my working files on my Mac. That the other people in the room began referring to it as the happy bus meant I’d hit the mark with my design.

Our logo for Star Office Group has a more serious, corporate look than The Brighton Bus logo

The next logo is for a Toronto office furniture company called Star Office Group. They specialize in selling recycled office furniture and wanted to update their existing look with a logo that made a connection to the environmental benefits of buying pre-owned. The green leaf shape and star makes the connection to recycling and the brown lettering creates an impression of solid reliability and earthiness.

Tests revealed that having the words "office group" in green text weren't displaying as strongly on the golf shirts so the switch was made to all brown text.

Although we try to design logos with as many possible uses in mind there are occasions when you may need to tweak a logo after it has been accepted by the client. Our initial version had the words “Office Group” in the same green as the leaf and star. Tests of the logo applied to golf shirts for the company uniform revealed that those words would show better if they were done in the same brown as “Star”. We made the adjustment and the logo was ready for widespread use and adoption by the company. (This will be fully revealed in the next few days when the new company website from poloDesign goes live.)

Our logo for the Brighton Barn Theatre.

Our final example is a logo for Brighton Barn Theatre. This community theatre company performs its season of shows to raise money for Proctor House Museum, a local historical attraction. The group was interested in increasing the level of branding and marketing they were doing. They had an older website that was in need of updating and contacted poloDesign to assist. We noticed immediately that they had no official logo and created the one you see here which now appears on their new website and promotional materials.

Again, we presented three concepts and worked with our clients to develop a logo which communicates a sense of who they are. The lettering was chosen to give a sense of the mix between town and country as the two seem to coexist nicely in this area. As the group performs in a refurbished barn it made sense to incorporate barn imagery into the logo. I chose to show an outline of the roof set against a darkened sky filled with stars for two reasons. The first, and obvious reason, was that this is theatre so of course there should be stars. My other thought was that the twilight sky evokes the magic and mystery of sitting in a theatre when the lights go down and you lose yourself for a little while watching the performance.

People with an eye for detail will notice, when they visit the barn, that it doesn’t actually have a hip roof as shown in the logo. I initially did two versions of the roof, one with the peaked roof as it actually appears and the adopted one which is the more traditional image for a barn roof in most people’s minds. There was a great deal of discussion about this point and it was an interesting question as to whether one should adhere to factual details or exercise some creative licence. Being actors and artists, it came as no surprise that the theatre company chose on the side of creative licence.

In the end, the most important part of designing a logo is the creative collaboration with our clients. We’re helping them to fashion an identity, their “game face” which they will display for the rest of the world to see. We work with our clients to create a unique graphic image capable of quickly communicating their business and personality.

If you’d like our help in creating your “game face”, please get in touch with us at email hidden; JavaScript is required. We’d love to help.