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"When Dave Ward took control of our company's web needs, it was like a huge burden was lifted. We had struggled for several years with getting our web presence to exactly mirror our other branding and marketing efforts. Dave has tremendous expertise in both creative and technical aspects of web development. He's a strategic thinker AND someone who gets the job done."
Tom Nardacci
Gramercy Communications

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Archive for June, 2011

Adobe Flash: It Was Great Five Years Ago, Not So Much Today

Flash Website DesignAdobe Flash used to be a great way to make your website stand out. Today, it’s definitely not. Why? It comes down to mobile device compatibility. You may have heard, but Flash doesn’t work on most mobile devices – most importantly, those by Apple. More then likely, it will never work on Apple mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. While some other platforms run it, like Android (but only if you have the right version and only on the newest phones and tablets), Apple simply has the market share and will continue to have market share for years to come. Check out this article by Engadget, where the latest comScore results (a company that tracks Internet statistics) show that 97% of all US-based Internet tablet traffic comes from iPads (and 89% of world traffic).

More and more people are using mobile devices to surf the web – and even more so when they are researching shopping decisions on the go. If your website is built with Flash, they’ll see nothing!

Flash was great five years ago because you could do things that HTML couldn’t. That’s not the case anymore; just about everything you can do with Flash you can do with HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. Plus, you’ve probably noticed a trend recently – people like websites that are simple and focus on content, not on “flashy” bells and whistles.

Sand Dollar Studios can help you design a website with just the right mix of creativity and content that will work on every web browser and mobile device!

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Twitter: Don’t Send Out a Dozen Tweets In 60 Seconds

In a quick followup to my last blog post, I wanted to offer another useful suggestion for those of you who are tweeting on Cayman. If you’re sending out multiple tweets a day, don’t do them all within a short time span. I’ve notices a few businesses and brands firing out 6-10 tweets in a few minutes, and this can actually hurt the effectiveness of your social media efforts. Why is this bad? Tweeting multiple tweets in a short time period has two adverse effects:

  • When you fill your followers stream with a multitude of tweets in a short time span, they’re much more likely to pass over all your tweets because it’s simply too much to digest at once.
  • If you do all your posting for the day at once, you’re missing the opportunity to keep your brand on your follower’s minds all day. If you spread out your tweets, your followers are constantly thinking of you as they receive your tweets.

There are some useful applications like HootSuite that allow you to schedule your Twitter and Facebook posts throughout the day. That way, you can still plug in all your tweets at once and let the magic of automation help you spread your message during the whole day.

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Social Media – It’s Not Just About Advertising!

Cayman Social Media ConsultingNow that I’ve been on Cayman a bit, I’ve followed many local brands on Facebook and Twitter. While it’s great that many companies on the island are embracing social media, I’m seeing them make many of the same mistakes that companies all over the world make. Social Media is not just a new advertising channel. While it’s a great way to get your message out to followers, if all you do is blast advertisements and SPAM, you’ll find they’ll quickly tune you out or un-follow your brand. If everything in your social media feed are advertisements, people will quickly begin to ignore you. Be selective with what you choose to post.

Furthermore, if you don’t interact with those who reach out, you’ll find they may quickly loose interest or un-follow you. For example, I’ve both experienced myself and seen others who have sent @ messages on Twitter to companies who then never respond to questions or acknowledge these messages. You cannot simply set up a Twitter or Facebook account and use it only as a one-way communication method. When your customers mention your brand on Twitter or post to your Facebook wall, not acknowledging them or responding is like a cold slap to the face of the customer.

Imagine visiting a restaurant and telling the manager that you had a good experience (or bad) and they don’t bother to look up to respond. How would that make the customer feel? Or, what if you asked a customer service representative an important question and they just ignored you?

If you’re using social media, make sure you’re communicating with people who choose to interact! That’s the best way to build brand and customer loyalty in the long run. Social media should be thought of just like any other customer communication, be it by phone, email, or person-to-person. If you don’t have the time or resources to manage your social media, you might be better off not using it at all!

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