Nerissa

she's an author.

"If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” - Toni Morrison

How responsive design can be used to target your mobile audience.

Last week at HackerYou we covered responsive design in all it’s glory. The main idea is nothing new. In… response… to trends in mobile browsing, developers are building sites that look beautiful regardless of screen size that the site is being viewed on.

This got me thinking about messaging, of all things. Mainly I started to wonder if the message of a site changes when it goes responsive.

As developers, we make decisions about how the content on a page will shift to accommodate small screen sizes. In general we want to make sure none of the information is lost when a site goes from a large screen to a tablet or mobile phone. But we still have to decide what information will be in view from first mobile-glance.

Using huge margins and padding all over a page is good for readability, but space is at a premium on smaller devices. Time is a premium too. People spend a lot of it on their phones, and mobile users are usually going somewhere quickly. It’s safe to assume that they’re looking for very specific information: hours of operation, a phone number, a map, the date of an event, etc.

Beyond simple changes that make a site 100% easier to view on a small device, like shrinking images, navigation menus and text, there’s the way content is laid out. Having those basic, ‘quick-hit’ pieces of information at the top or front and centre of the smaller versions of a site makes all the difference.

This is how you do responsive design. Smallest version of site includes info people on mobile devices are probably looking for.
This is how you do responsive design. Smallest version of this site for a wedding includes information guests and invitees are probably looking for if they’re on a mobile device.

The other thing I started thinking about after class was how responsive websites can offer unique marketing opportunities, not necessarily with changing information on the site, but using [or creating useful] content and arranging it on the site in a way that speaks directly to mobile users.

Take sites for web designers and developers as an example. Generally there’s a specific segment of the market looking at a site from a mobile phone. Someone who is looking at a web developers’ site from a mobile phone (or if they’re resizing their browser!) is probably a designer themselves, and a potential <wink>client</wink>.

Or, a tech company that’s releasing a new version of an app or smartphone will probably have a website highlighting all the new features of their product, but the responsive version of the site can highlight the new features of their product specifically applicable to mobile users first.

The best example I found of how this could work would probably be the site for iPhone app design and development company, RAMOTION. The largest version of the site features a full-background slider of work they’ve done.

Full-screen version of ramotion.com
Full-screen version of ramotion.com…
When ramotion.com goes responsive...
Site goes responsive.

When visiting the site from a mobile phone, the portfolio slider scales down. More room is left at the bottom of the screen for a header that says ‘We Build Mobile’.

I’m willing to bet a toonie that the minds behind ramotion.com knew that anyone visiting the site on a mobile device would probably be a potential client or connected to a potential client, so having that short but direct part of the heading for the next section visible on the home page speaks directly to that audience. It also lets visitors know to scroll down!

What do you think? Is it possible to use responsive design to target certain site users or should responsive design be left alone?

*Wedding site images courtesy of studiofunction.com/wedding, designed by Frank Maidens. RAMOTION site images courtesy of… RAMOTION.com

Twitter for people who don’t like blogging + noobs.

If you’re an entrepreneur, solopreneur, freelancer, or you own a small business and you don’t like blogging, here are some steps you can take to build your profile on Twitter. It’s one way to engage with your audience that’s more interactive than blogging or emailing and doesn’t require intense writing.

  1. Follow people. Find customers and clients, potential customers and clients, business partners, competitors (yes.), thought leaders in your field / industry, people you admire, companies or groups you want to partner with someday, friends, family, pancake houses. In other words follow as many people as you can who are relevant to you and your business. Everyone you follow will get a notice telling them that you’re following them.
  2. Carve out five – ten minutes in your day to check what’s going on with the people you’re following. When you see something you would have said, retweet, or if you see something you like, fav it. If you find something interesting or have a comment about something someone else tweeted (and you don’t mind it being public on the internets), respond.

These two things really make up half the battle. The best thing is if you just follow others and retweet / fav / respond you’re building engagement without tweeting anything yourself. But chances are if you follow people, people are going to follow you. And once you start building engagement you’re going to have some things to say…

  1. If your business relies heavily on dates / schedules (fitness studio or gym, for example) time your tweets to coincide with this schedule. If you have a big event coming up, consider telling your followers about important milestone dates leading up to the event (space or performers booked, sponsorships, etc.). Put all this in a calendar, if that makes things easier.
  2. Following that, tweet about your events! Sales, classes, talks, special appearances by celebrities, even personal things like graduating from school, finishing a program or taking a trip to attend a conference.
  3. Share stuff. Yes, there’s a lot of “noise” out there. A lot of people saying a lot of stuff about a lot of different things. But this doesn’t mean no one wants to hear what you have to say. Share things you find online, things you overheard or events that might be of interest to your followers.
  4. Share YOUR stuff. Take a picture of a new product your company is developing, a new shipment of clothing or accessories to your store, something cool happening right in front of you. Maybe you own a fitness studio and someone in your class is mastering a move for the first time. Get their permission to send a photo out to the universe and share it.

As with anything else, you determine how much (or little) you’ll get out of using Twitter. I’ve been on it for a couple of years and I know I can do a better job of being more engaged. But that’s the great thing about it – it’s easy and quick to join the conversation when you’re ready.

Are you ok, PR?

Update: 10/29/14

Check out this Whitepaper from Vocus that talks about how to combine traditional PR tactics with Content Marketing: How to Use Content Marketing to Generate Engagement and Coverage.

I’m no doctor, but I’ve been in the PR industry for a few years and from what I can tell the prognosis is not great.

There are a bunch of jobs specifically for people who work solely online who do the same things PR folks are supposed to do. Content Marketers, SEO Specialists, Community Managers, all of them are writing, managing influencers and stakeholders, monitoring, and putting out fires.

Ironically within agencies and large companies the social media and PR specialists are often in different departments entirely, completely forgetting about each other except to tweet out a release or manage an issue that is already out of control.

It’s like social media and public relations are soulmates but just can’t/won’t get together.

Part of the problem is many people still don’t understand PR and relegate it to the ‘press release and translation’ department. Another part of the problem is PR is like that bad kid in school that’s always doing something bad. No one pays attention when that kid behaves but everyone talks about every bad thing that kid does. And then there’s this.

While the PR industry tries to figure its shit out, those of us in the trenches have to navigate our own careers if we want to move forward with the rest of the world. Luckily if you have or are starting a career in the PR industry, there are lots of resources… online… that can help sharpen your skills, covering everything between web and content development, to social media strategy and community management. Here are a few that have helped me and a few I found for this post:

Last but definitely-not least, full disclosure I’m a student at this place so it’s special to me: HackerYou.

So what do you think? Is the PR / communications industry in danger of falling through the gap?

*Jennifer Aniston image from allure.com, John Stamos image from accessatlanta.com